


solid as a stone (when everything is gone)

by louisnights



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alpha Liam Payne, Alpha Louis Tomlinson, Alpha Zayn Malik, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Enemies With Benefits, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Found Family, Grief/Mourning, I think that's it - Freeform, Jay is in one scene but it's only a sad phonecall in the beginning, M/M, Mpreg, Mpreg Harry, Omega Harry, Smut, but if i should tag anything else hmu, injuries that are typical for a zombie apocalypse, non graphic depictions of birth, zombie killing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 03:13:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18932254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/louisnights/pseuds/louisnights
Summary: “Why’d you take me with you?”Louis startles at the question, the car almost swerving off the road in the process. He holds his breath as he waits for the twins to wake up and start wailing, but they don’t. They keep sleeping on peacefully, covered in the family blanket.Harry’s looking at him with an unreadable expression.Louis takes a minute, mulling it over. He answers quietly. “I hate to say it, but as much as we hate each other, I can’t bear to leave you alone to deal with this whole thing all by yourself.” and I wouldn’t be able to bear it if you died, he adds in his mind.or, it's the zombie apocalypse and Louis is stuck with Harry, with whom he shares a complicated relationship with.





	solid as a stone (when everything is gone)

**Author's Note:**

> Wow! I can't believe I actually managed to finish this baby!!
> 
> I just wanted to thank my lovely beta Liv and my lovely britpicker Toni, y'all are the real MVP's. Also big love to Laura who's the best cheerleader there is! I love you all <3.
> 
> special thanks to the mod of the dystopian fic fest for giving me the extention i needed to finish this!

Louis’ nostrils flare as he breathes in deeply with each thrust, the smell of Harry’s slick and arousal almost overwhelming. Harry’s loud moans are the only thing that spurs him on, makes him thrust in harder, faster, deeper. He feels as Harry’s nails scratch down his back, no doubt leaving red marks in their wake.

He hates how much he loves fucking Harry. It’s always the high point of his days whenever they end up in each other’s beds. It’s the only thing that makes sense to him now, fucking Harry.

Harry nips at the skin of his shoulder, licking over the red skin, and the sharpness of it makes Louis’ eyes roll back into his head. He’s going to knot soon. 

He pulls out, jerking his dick with a fast movement of his hand, kneeling over Harry. He stares at his enemy, the Omega he hates. He hates him so much, but he really wishes he could knot him. He grunts loudly as the thought drives him over the edge, remembering the one and only time he’d ever knotted Harry. 

The way he’d knotted him prematurely when they’d first fucked. Harry had laughed at him, punched him in the shoulder, hard, and called him a knothead before he left. 

He rips his condom off and comes all over Harry’s bare chest, wishing he could rub his come deep into his skin, mark him as his. Louis jerks back, blinking. He stores that thought away, and acting like he hadn’t just wanted to claim his enemy, he grabs Harry’s hips to hold them down and takes his cock into his mouth.

Harry comes soon after, a loud moan escaping his pretty, pretty lips. 

Louis gets up, throws the condom in the trash. He walks around, looking for his clothes that are all over the floor. He notices in his peripheral vision the TV turn on. He can’t find his boxers. “Can I borrow some boxers?”

Harry just nods. “In the middle drawer.”

He’s half dressed when he hears it. A loud gasp coming from the bed. He looks at Harry, sees how heavily he’s breathing. That’s not the good kind of heavy breathing.  He sniffs the air, the smell of fear radiating from Harry. “What’s wrong?”

Harry points at the telly. The news is on, with the sound off. He watches as people on the screen run around, covered in blood and no. That can’t be right. They’re  _ eating  _ each other. 

Louis snatches the remote from Harry’s hand and turns on the sound. 

“-are recommended to stay inside their homes right now. Don’t interact with anyone, stay inside. Be safe.”

“Fuck,” Louis says. “Fuck.” He rifles through the pockets of his jeans that are on the floor, grabbing his phone out of his pocket and speed dialling his mum. It goes straight to voicemail. He tries Dan next. Also voicemail. He tries Lottie. Voicemail. He looks to his right, watching Harry’s tearstained face as he clutches his own phone in his hand, raised to his ear. His family aren’t answering either.

Louis is about to dial the home phone when his starts ringing in his hand. “Mum, are you okay? Where is everybody, are they with you?”

He hears as Jay takes a deep breath. “Boo, I need you to do something for me,” Her voice is quivering, why is her voice quivering? Louis has never heard her like this before. “I’m infected. I need you to come home and save the twins.”

“Mummy,” Louis whines, his voice breaking. He sounds like he did when he was just a small boy, long before he presented as an Alpha. “You’re okay. Please say you’re gonna be okay.”

“I’m not, Boo Bear, I’m sorry,” Jay sniffles. “I’m dying. I can feel it. I locked Ernie and Dotty in their room, put them down for a nap and left some food. They’re wearing their nappies. Please come and save them, Louis.”

“Mum, please,” Louis is begging, he knows he is. “Where are the older twins? Where’s Lottie? Dan?”

“I’m sorry, Boo Bear,” Jay sobs, her breathing shallow. “They’re gone. Please come and save them, Louis. I love you, my darling son.”

The line goes dead. Louis gives himself a minute to breathe. A minute to process what’s happening, before he wipes away the wetness of his cheeks. He has a sense of purpose now. Saving his little siblings, his youngest, smallest siblings. The only way he’ll be able to cope now, is by saving them.

Harry’s sobbing in the middle of his bed, a pillow pressed tightly to his chest. His eyes are glued to the telly, glued to all the gory details of this new virus that’s been spreading like wildfire all morning. The situation is extremely dangerous, he knows, but he knows what to do.

He finishes dressing himself, throwing Harry’s clothes onto his lap. “Get dressed.” He doesn’t give Harry much room to object, as he’s already speed dialled his best mate. Zayn picks up on the second ring. “I know, Lou, I’m ready. I’ll send you the directions to the place. I’ll bring as many supplies as I can, and you should do the same. Love you, mate, good luck.”

The line goes dead after that. Him and Zayn have always been lucky in a twisted sort of way. They’ve consumed every piece of zombie media there is to find.  Watched every movie, every TV show, read every book. They’ve even made their own preparations for these scenarios, obviously they never thought it would actually happen, but they’re still as prepared as they can be, considering the circumstances.

“We’re leaving.”

Harry blinks up at him. “Where?”

“Somewhere safe,” Louis says. “Pack everything you can, all the necessities you need to survive. You’re probably never coming back here. I’ll give you forty minutes.”

Fifty minutes later, they’re packed and ready in Harry’s ridiculous Range Rover. Louis is glad to be driving, and glad for how much room there is in this car. 

He knows how scary this must be for Harry, who hasn’t heard anything from anyone in his family, not even his friends. He doesn’t know why he even brought him along, they’re supposed to hate each other. But how can he hate Harry when he looks so sad? So scared and broken?

He wordlessy moves his hand off the wheel and squeezes Harry’s hand. 

The drive from London to Doncaster is too long, and Louis’ so worried about the twins. It takes three and a half hours until they’ve arrived, parking in front of his childhood home. He jumps out of the car, running into the house as fast as he can. He calls out for his mum, siblings and stepfather, but the only answers are the twins’ loud crying coming from their bedroom.

He finds the key to their room under the bath mat in the bathroom, after having looked for it a while. He opens the door quickly, seeing the twins huddled together in one of their beds, clutching onto each other for dear life as they cry. The sight of them breaks his heart, and he runs into the room, gathering them into his arms and whispering sweet nothings into their ears. 

They sag into him in relief at his familiar smell. He scents them as much as he can, but he knows it’s not enough. He’s not their mum. And that’s who they need the most right now. But she’s gone. He’s all they’ve got now. 

Harry appears in the doorway, and Louis watches as his eyes tear up slightly at the sight of the twins. He knows that Harry loves babies, and that he always babysat for his neighbors whenever he could, and refused to let them pay him for it. He was even studying early child development in uni.

Uni. Louis sighs into Ernie’s hair, his nose buried in his blond curls. Uni is over now. If it had been a regular day today, he’d have left Harry in his bed without a second glance, and then went home to study for his English Lit test tomorrow. 

He makes a quick decision. He keeps letting the twins scent him, scenting them back as he makes calming noises. He sings softly to them until they fall asleep in his arms. He lays them down together in the bed, covering them with a blanket. “The keys to my mum’s car are on the kitchen table in a bowl, take them and put their carseats in yours. Your car has more room to store things, so we’re taking it.”

Harry nods, not questioning him, and runs out of the room to do as he’s been told. Louis goes to his childhood bedroom and gets his big suitcase. He’s going to have to settle for some of his old clothes now, as well as whatever he’d left here the last time he visited. He packs everything he finds in his room that he might need, then he walks into his mum’s bedroom, and is smacked in the face with her scent.

He breathes in deeply, letting the smell of her soothe him in a way nothing else can. She’s really gone. Killed by a stupid virus. 

He runs around filling up as many suitcases as he can find. He only filled the one for himself, the rest is for the twins. He grabs his mum’s blankets, a bunch of her old sweaters, and his stepdad's shirts. He grabs the bottle of perfume his mother owns, as well as the cologne bottle his stepfather owns. He goes to the twins’ room, filling the suitcases to the brim with their clothes. He grabs every single nappy bag he finds. 

Then he lugs everything into the back of Harry’s Range Rover. He grabs the last suitcase, one that belonged to his sister Daisy. He fills it with toys and make up, and anything that the twins would have fun with. He also takes all the family photo albums he can find, lugging them into a backpack and throwing it into the back of the car.

The last thing he does is grab the blanket resting on the sofa in the family room, it smells like home and all their scents mixed together. He puts it in the backseat of the car before he goes into the house for the last time. He lifts the twins easily into his arms, taking a deep steadying breath, he carries them to the car, and fastens them into their carseats. 

Harry sits in the passenger seat, eyes staring unfocused out of the window. Louis knows how he feels, but they have to keep moving. They won’t be safe until they reach Zayn’s cabin.

He has to stay calm, if not for himself, then for the twins and Harry. He’s the Alpha, he can’t afford to get upset only to set them all off, like it did to Harry once, when Louis got so mad during one of their screaming fits that his scent had sent Harry scurrying off. 

He doesn’t even know why he brought Harry with him. He shakes his head, clearing his mind of the thoughts plaguing it. He walks back into the house, making sure he didn’t forget anything. It looks like he didn’t. He walks into his twins’ shared bedroom. It’s a mess. Their school uniforms flung all over the floor. Their washing basket is filled to the brim in the corner. He’s going to miss them so much. 

His eyes sting, filling with tears. He squeezes them shut, grabbing Phoebe’s pillow and sobbing into it, inhaling her scent. He lets himself have this one minute. One minute to break down before he pulls himself together. He’s got a long drive ahead of him, and he can’t afford to break down in the middle of it.

He wipes the tears away, inhaling the scents in the room one more time before he leaves. He can’t look back now. He goes to the kitchen, and on a whim, grabs his mother’s old recipe books. They might come in handy one day. 

Then he leaves the house, closing the door and not looking back. 

He doesn’t say anything as he buckles his seatbelt. He doesn’t say anything as he pulls out of the parking space. He just doesn’t speak.

\-----

Louis hates driving. Absolutely despises it. He always has. He hates sitting in one place and having to focus on steering, while at the same time having to focus on his surroundings. He’s always preferred the passenger seat. 

The city around them is completely and utterly destroyed. In a matter of half a day, the city that was so full of life is now almost completely deserted. 

Dead bodies litter the streets, and there’s blood almost everywhere you look. Car wreckages on almost every corner. 

“Do you think anyone we know is still alive?”

The question throws him off. He looks at Harry in the corner of his eye, whose face is a mask of fake calm. 

“I don’t know,” Louis says honestly. “I know my best mate, Zayn, is probably still alive.”

“How can you be so sure?” Harry asks sceptically. “ Look at your surroundings. Everything is destroyed, we saw a walking corpse an hour ago.”

“You mean the zombie?” Louis asks in complete seriousness. 

“Zombie?” Harry frowns. “That can’t be what this is.”

“I’m pretty sure a walking dead corpse is called a zombie, Harry.”

“But maybe he was just alive and really injured?”

“He had a knife sticking out of his heart,” Louis deadpanned. “I’m pretty sure that means he’s dead. Anyway, me and Z have always had a plan in place, just in case anything like this might happen.”

Harry’s eyebrows furrowed together. “Isn’t that a bit paranoid?”

Louis shrugs his shoulder, gesturing to their surroundings. Harry nods and concedes to the unspoken point. 

“Fuck,” Louis exclaims. “We need to stop somewhere for petrol.”

Harry’s eyes widen. “No. No fucking way.”

“We haven’t got a choice in the matter,” Louis grumbles. “We’ve gotta stop for petrol or we’ll just stay here in the car in the middle of fucking nowhere when it breaks down. You’ll be staying in the car, by the way.”

“No fucking way am I getting out of this car and risking running into those corpse things,” Harry says firmly. “I’ll stay here with the twins.”

Louis nods. He parks in the first petrol station they come across. It’s abandoned. He takes off his seatbelt as he looks around. He doesn’t see anyone around.

He steps out of the car cautiously, closing the door as quietly as he can. He connects the petrol pump to the car. Nothing comes out. He curses to himself and opens the car door. “I need to go inside for the petrol, I can’t fill it up like this.”

Harry nods, nervously fidgeting with the hem of his jumper.

Louis takes a breath, gathering his courage. He walks inside the petrol station, careful to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible. 

He sees a corpse, laying in the middle of an aisle, crawling towards him. He sighs and tries not to let the fear overtake him. He takes out his pocket knife and jams it as hard as he can into the corpse’s eye socket. That seems to do the trick, making the corpse just a normal corpse now. He pulls the knife out, and it comes out with a squelchy noise that makes him gulp and vomit straight onto the floor. 

He spits onto the floor, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve and walks further into the station. He grabs a bottle of water from the fridge and downs it all in one go. 

It takes him a few minutes to find the 10 liter canisters of the type of fuel he needs. There are 5 canisters on the shelf, and he grabs one. He walks out of the station and fills up the tank of the car. He notices there’s still room in it and walks back into the station. It takes him two trips to the gas station to the the four canisters into the rover. 

Harry hasn’t said a thing to him, just sits in his seat in the front of the car all silent and brooding. At least, Louis is guessing that he’s brooding. 

He decides to do one last thing. He opens the driver’s side door and leans in. “I’ll be right back, just need one more thing.”

He fills two plastic bags with all kinds of chips, chocolate, granola bars and water bottles. Then he grabs a third and fills it with all the iced tea he can find for Harry. as well as all the Yorkshire tea boxes he finds for himself. 

He wordlessly hands Harry the bags as he gets back into the driver’s seat. Harry smiles faintly as he grabs a bottle of peach iced tea. Louis thinks it’s a small blessing, and then settles on ignoring his own opinion. They’re supposed to be enemies, after all. 

\-----

They’ve been driving for hours. Louis can feel exhaustion start to seep in, but he knows he can’t stop. They’re almost there. 

The twins have slept throughout the whole drive. Harry has barely spoken at all the entire time since the petrol station. He’s also been periodically calling his mum and sister throughout the whole ride, trying to get a hold of them. 

“Why’d you take me with you?”

Louis startles at the question, the car almost swerving off the road in the process. He holds his breath as he waits for the twins to wake up and start wailing, but they don’t. They keep sleeping on peacefully, covered in the family blanket. 

Harry’s looking at him with an unreadable expression. 

Louis takes a minute, mulling it over. He answers quietly. “I hate to say it, but as much as we hate each other, I can’t bear to leave you alone to deal with this whole thing all by yourself.”  _ and I wouldn’t be able to bear it if you died, _ he adds in his mind. 

“I’m not fucking helpless, you know,” Harry huffs out. 

“I know,” Louis agrees. “But you’re still an omega, and you don’t do sports. You’re skinny, and you smell really good. You’re unmated and you’re-”

“That has nothing to do with why you took me with you,” Harry interrupts. “You just don’t want to be alone, so you took the only person who happened to be with you.”

“Fuck, no,” Louis snaps. “You might think I’m this horrible over-confident Alpha, but I’m not. The day we met,  _ you _ decided to hate me just because I ate one cookie.”

Harry glares at him, unimpressed by his words. “That was my cookie! You asked who’s cookie it was, I said it was mine, and you fucking ate it anyway.”

Louis’ grip on the steering wheel tightens. It’s a miracle the twins haven’t woken up throughout their argument. “For the last fucking time, Curly, I. Had. The. Munchies.”

“You think I give a shit about whether or not you had munchies?” Harry asks incredulous. “That was  _ my  _ cookie, and I was saving it. And _ you ate it. _ ”

“Jesus, you’re such an arsehole! It was one fucking cookie, you could’ve just bought another one!” Louis says through gritted teeth. “I wish I never fucking met you.”

“Me too.”

“I wish I could fuck you so hard right now.”

“Me too.”

Louis feels lucky that the twins weren’t awake to hear that part. Only a small amount of time until they arrive at the cabin, and then they can go back to ignoring each other.

\-----

Louis parks the car right in front of the small path that leads up to the cabin. It’s a modestly sized summer house, made from dark wood. It has a decent sized porch, with a small porch swing hanging besides the front door. 

He shuts the engine off, letting out a breath of relief and steps out of the car. Stretching his limbs before he goes to wake the twins up. 

He walks over to the passenger side and knocks on the window harshly to wake Harry, who is gently snoring with his nose smushed right up against the window.

He startles awake, huffing as he wipes the drool away from the corner of his mouth. He gets out of the car. “We here?”

Louis nods. “I’m gonna take Ernie and carry him to the bed inside so I can wake him up somewhere nicer than the car. You take Doris. Hold her gently, please.”

“I know how to hold a fucking toddler.”

Louis ignores him, putting all his focus on getting his baby brother out of his carseat without waking him. He manages to do it without any trouble, Ernie snoring with his cheek squished up against Louis’ shoulder. 

They walk up to the house, an uncomfortable silence between them. Louis knocks his and Zayn’s secret code on the door. It opens a minute later.

Zayn gives him a sad smile and a tight hug, pecking him and Ernie both on their foreheads. “Your room is the master. No arguments, Lou, you need the biggest room.”

Louis just nods gratefully.  Harry follows him to the master bedroom, where they gently put the twins down on the bed. “You can go, Zayn will show you where your room is,” Louis says, unkindly, voice a harsh whisper. “We’ll talk later.”

Harry storms out, closing the door gently with a click, and Louis can just tell how much he wanted to slam the door in his face. 

Time to wake the twins so he can get them bathed and fed. 

He strokes Dotty’s hair with his left hand, the other stroking Ernie’s. “Babes, it’s time to wake up.”

They don’t stir. He nudges them both a little, and says it again, slightly louder. “Wake up, you need to eat something.”

Dotty still doesn’t stir. Ernie sniffles into his neck, his nose pressed to Louis’ scent gland. “Food, Achoo?”

“Yeah, Ern,” Louis agrees. “Food.” 

Ernie nods into his neck, rubbing his left eye with his fist. “Mummy cooking?”

“No,” Louis shakes his head, kissing Ernie’s forehead. God, he’s going to cry. How do you tell a toddler that their mother and their whole family is either dead, or presumed dead?

“Mummy’s not here right now, little lad,” Louis says, voice gentle. He nudges Dotty again. “Dotty, it’s time to wake up, darling.” 

She groans, burrowing deeper into the bed. It makes Louis’ lip twitch into an almost smile. She’s just like her big brother. “Come on, Dotty, let’s go eat.”

She rubs her eyes. “M’kay.”

He lets her crawl into his lap as she wakes up fully, her red curls are all over the place, sticking up in every direction. She’s so cute. 

He gets up, a twin on each hip and walks with them into the kitchen. He smells an unfamiliar Alpha scent, and tightens his grip on them. 

There’s an Alpha he’s never met standing in the kitchen, casually talking with Zayn as they cook. Louis clears his throat. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Calm your claws, Lou,” Zayn sighs. “It’s just Liam.”

Liam smiles sheepishly, waving awkwardly. Louis scents the twins before he deposits them so they’re sitting on the counter opposite the stove. “Zee, we forgot to think of the high chairs for the kiddos.” 

“Yeah, I realised that when you brought them here,” Zayn says. “I didn’t know you were bringing them, but I’m glad you managed to save them.”

Louis nods. Doris clings onto his hand, shy with the unfamiliar Alpha in the room. Ernie just stares curiously at Liam. He points at him. “You smell like uncle Z.”

Liam freezes where’s he’s cutting up the onions. “I do?”

“Yep,” He says. “You smell like sinmoon.”

Zayn huffs out a laugh before he turns around, ruffling Ernie’s hair. “You mean cinnamon?”

Ernie nods. “I like it.”

“Thank you, Ern,” Zayn chuckles. He turns around to resume the cooking. “Dinner will be ready in ten, babes, go get Harry, who by the way,” Zayn stares pointedly at Louis. “We will be talking about later.”

Louis rolls his eyes, walking in the direction of Harry’s room. Dotty whines, so he grabs her and takes her along. He smiles softly as he holds her to his chest. 

She lays her head on his shoulder, bringing her nose to his scent gland to smell him. He scents her as he walks. 

The door to Harry’s room is closed, but Louis just can’t be bothered with knocking so he just walks straight inside. Harry is laying in the bunk, sobbing into a pillow. Louis will never admit it, but he feels a strong urge to comfort the Omega. “Achoo, he crying.” Dotty says sadly. She fidgets to be let down so she can waddle over to Harry’s bed. He wipes his eyes as she walks towards him. She climbs into the bed and crawls onto his lap, licking at his tears. 

Louis leans in against the doorway as he watches. 

Dotty brings her tiny fist up to Harry’s cheek, rubbing the wetness away before she clumsily kisses his cheek. She doesn’t say anything as she squishes his cheeks with her hands. A tiny dimple appears in his right cheek, and she pokes it with her finger. He laughs softly, wetly. The sight of it makes Louis feel soft.

“It’s time for dinner,” Louis says. “Bring Dotty to the kitchen when you’re ready. She seems to like you.”

He doesn’t wait for a reply before he walks out and back to the kitchen. It seems like Harry needs a good cuddle right now, and Dotty always gives the best ones.

Liam is setting the table with Ernie’s very unhelpful help when he walks into the kitchen. Zayn’s stirring whatever’s in the big pot, but it smells good. He walks to the table and sits down in one of the chairs. There are only five chairs around the round table. 

“Ernie,” Louis calls out, patting his lap. “Come sit with me for dinner, we don’t have a chair for you, yet.”

Ernie toddles over to him, bringing up his arms so Louis can lift him up and into his lap. Ernie kicks his feet back and forth excitedly, hurting Louis’ shins in the process, but he lets him.

“What’s for dinner?”

“Chilli,” Zayn replies, a smirk painting his lips. “The white people version. For the twins.”

“Thanks, love,” Louis chuckles. “Maybe next time we can just have a spicy one with a separate one for the twins that isn’t spicy. Your spicy chilli is too good.”

“Yeah, true,” Zayn agrees, nodding. “This is more like spaghetti bolognese without the spaghetti, to be honest.”

Ernie perks up in his lap. “Spaget?”

“No, Ern,” Louis pats affectionately in his curls. “Only chilli.”

“Okay,” Ernie nods. “Food?” 

Zayn laughs, putting the last ingredients into the pot. “Ready in one minute, Ern.”

“Okay,” Ernie sits, still kicking his feet. Louis smiles fondly, and kisses his forehead. The kid loves spaghetti, they should cook that for him soon if they can.

Harry walks in, carrying Dotty on his back, her arms around his neck and his arms supporting her legs around his middle. He sits down in the seat next to Louis, on his left, with Dotty making herself comfortable in his lap. “No high chairs?”

Louis shakes his head. “Nope. we’re gonna have to find some later.”

Zayn brings the big pot of chilli and puts it in the middle of the table. “Bon appetizer or whatever the fuck you say.”

Liam laughs, clapping him on the back. “I think you mean Bon Apetit.”

“Wow, how about this, smartass,” Zayn lifts up his middle finger. “Bon, fuck you.”

“Heyyyy,” Harry whines, his lips drawn into a disapproving pout. “There are little ears in the room.”

Louis just snorts, taking a huge bite of his chilli. “I’m pretty sure hearing the word ‘fuck’ won’t do shit to their upbringing.”

Harry’s pout deepens, but he stays silent, helping himself to a serving. He fills the bowl almost to the brim, feeding Dotty bites in between his own. Louis tries to ignore the butterflies in his belly at the truly endearing sight. He hates Harry, and that’s how it’s gonna stay, even if the fucker gives him butterflies.

“So, Liam,” Louis says, abruptly changing the subject and silencing his traitorous mind. “How do you know Zayn?”

Liam swallows his bite, about to answer when Zayn cuts him off. “Liam worked with my cousin in the hospital. He was doing his residency there.”

“Residency?” Louis blinks. “Aren’t you a little young for that?”

“I’m only twenty-four,” Liam says, shrugging. “Graduated a year early and went straight to uni and so on. I just started the residency there, never gonna finish it now, obviously.”

“It’s good that you’re here,” Harry cuts in, kindly. “It’ll come in handy to have a doctor with us, especially as we have the twins.”

Louis silently agrees. He focuses on feeding his brother, even though his brother has been feeding himself fine on his own, albeit a bit messily. 

Dotty looks perfectly content with being fed by Harry. Louis suspects she’ll end up presenting as Omega when she’s older. Then he bites his lip, scolding himself for thinking that way. People used to think he would present as an Omega, because he’d been so delicately crafted, as they had said. He remembers how much they tried keeping him from the ‘Alpha kind of toys’. He won’t do that to his siblings, as he knows how damaging that can be. 

He’s shaken out of his reverie by Ernie shoving a handful of chilli in his face, trying to feed him, but instead he just ends up smearing it across his face from his left cheek down to his chin. He sighs. “Earnest, no.”

Ernie just blinks up at him all innocently. Louis gets up, situating him on his hip. “Time for a bath, young man.”

“I have a better idea for the kids,” Zayn pipes up, his mouth full of his food as he speaks, making Louis grimace. How the Alpha can be so perfectly pretty and then ruin it by chewing and talking with his mouth full, he has no idea. “I have a hot tub out back.”

“Hot tub?” Louis looks at both of his siblings, thinking. “Yeah, okay, that sounds fun. Just remember to keep it at a good temperature for three year olds.”

“Of course,” Zayn says, rolling his eyes as he gets up. “I’ll clean up after I turn on the hot tub, it’ll take a few minutes to fill up.”

Harry turns to Dotty, wiping her mouth with his sleeve, which is disgusting, but Louis isn’t going to say anything. “Dotty, do you want to go to the hot tub?”

“Yes,” Dotty bounces excitedly in Harry’s lap. “You come too!”

“You want me to come with you?” 

Dotty nods. “You’re nice.”

Harry’s smile takes over his whole face, making two dimples appear. Louis really has to stop staring at him like this, like he’s some school boy with a crush on the playground. He turns away with Ernie on his hip, he walks to the bathroom, planning to clean him up a bit.

He sets Ernie down onto the closed toilet lid, getting a wet rag to clean up his fingers and face. 

“Achoo?”

Louis continues wiping his chin. “Yes, darling?”

“Where’s mumma?”

The question makes him feel like his broken heart is breaking into a million more pieces. Again. He clears his throat, trying not to tear up, trying to get that one sauce stain off of his cheek. “Mum went to heaven, baby,” Louis says, clenching his jaw. He can’t afford to cry, because it will just set the toddler off as well. 

A tear spills down his cheek anyway, without his control. Ernie pouts, his face a mask of philosophical thinking, as if that is even possible for a three year old. “Mumma coming back?”

Louis wipes the tear away, shaking his head. “No, Ernie, she’s gone.”

Louis can’t stop the tears from spilling, as his brother’s eyes fill up as well, bottom lip trembling. “Gone?”

Louis sniffs loudly, breathing through sobs. He tugs Ernie into a tight hug, sobbing into his baby brother’s shoulder. He can feel Ernie’s tears soaking his shirt. Louis knows how broken he sounds. “She’s not coming back, Ernie.”

\-----

He has no idea how long they’ve been there, huddled together on the bathroom floor. Both of their tears have dried up, wiped away with the sleeves of Louis’ sweater. They're just sitting in a tight embrace.

Louis takes a deep breath before he untangles them. Ernie looks exhausted, his tear ducts swollen, nose a bright red. Louis kisses his cheeks. “Do you still wanna go to the hot tub?”

Ernie nods his head, curling back into Louis’ chest. There’s a loud sniff against his shoulder, so Louis lets Ernie scent him. “Mumma’s gonna come back, you see.”

Louis blinks, not wanting his eyes to get wet again. He places a few more lingering kisses on Ernie’s head of curls before he untangles them. “We gotta take our clothes off to get in the hot tub. Okay?”

“M’kay,” Ernie says, immediately trying to get his sweater off. “You help?”

Louis smiles softly, helping out of his clothes until only the nappy is left. He takes it off and throws it in the bin. “Do you need to wee or poo?”

“I need to wee.”

Louis opens the lid on the toilet, helping Ernie sit on it as he wees. When he’s done, he helps him wash up. “Go and find Zayn. tell him you’re ready. I’ll be out in a bit, I just need to get ready too.”

Ernie runs out of the bathroom, shouting for his uncle Zayn. 

\-----

Louis hadn’t thought to pack any swimming costumes earlier, so he just sticks to wearing his plain black boxers. They’re a little tight, snug around his knot since they’re actually Harry’s.

He walks out of the bathroom, finding Liam and Harry sitting at the small dining table playing a round of Go Fish. “Not up for the hot tub, lads?”

They both shake their heads. Louis shrugs at them as he continues his walk towards the glass door in the living room, that connects to the porch where the hot tub is, in the corner of it.

Zayn’s already in the tub, relaxing in the water while the twins splash each other, standing on top of the seats. Louis smiles fondly, glad that they’re having fun. He gets in with a long contented sigh leaving his lips at the warm feeling the water leaves on his skin. He really needs this. “I’d forgotten about the tub, mate.”

“Maybe that’s because the last time we were here was three years ago,” Zayn says, a hint of mischievousness in his tone of voice. “Also, we were high as fuck.”

“Oh, yeah,” Louis says, looking up at the sky with a smirk. “If I remember correctly, we also snogged.”

“Ugh, do not remind me of that,” Zayn shudders at the memory. “I liked it better when we agreed to never talk about that again. But, speaking of kissing-”

“Don’t bring Harry up to me now,” Louis cuts him off sharply. “It’ll ruin the good vibe I’ve got going here.”

“Fair enough,” Zayn concedes, raising his hands up in mock surrender. “I just find it interesting how you’ve brought a bloke you hate with you. Which could only mean one thing, you were together when all this shit went down.”

“Okay, Sherlock,” Louis replies, voice laced with sarcasm as he rolls his eyes. “You’re right. We’ve been fuc-” He clears his throat as he remembers that the twins are here. “We’ve been hate fraternising. Enemies with benefits, if you will.”

“I knew it!” Zayn exclaims excitedly. “I knew there was something sketchy going on between you two!”

“Shut up,” Louis grits out, and gets out of the tub, if only to avoid this conversation. “Okay, kids, time for bed. It’s late.”

The twins groan and whine and beg to stay longer in the tub, but Louis is a pro who does not give in. This time. He picks Dotty up first and gets her well situated on his hip before Zayn helps him situate Ernie on his other hip, smirking at him the whole time. 

He walks with them into the bathroom, handing them each a fluffy towel. He looks around, remembering all the suitcases are still in the car outside. “Okay, loves, you’ll be happy to know that I’m too tired to get your toothbrushes,” Louis says. “So tonight, you don’t have to brush.”

The twins jump up and down while clapping happily. He sighs, helping them into their night nappies. They’re still being potty trained, and he has no idea how he’s going to go about it. 

He makes them drink a bit of water before bed, if only to clean their teeth just a little. Then he walks with them into the master bedroom, where he lays down in the middle and with a twin on either side, cuddling into him, he passes out.

\-----

When Louis wakes up, he’s alone in the big bed. He stumbles to his feet, walking out of the room and into the kitchen. Zayn’s sitting at the kitchen table with Ernie in his lap, both of them eating cereal out of their respective bowls. “Where’s Dotty?”

Zayn swallows his cereal, nonchalantly pointing at the door to Harry’s room with his spoon. Louis’ eyebrow raises in a silent question. Zayn rolls his eyes, pointing at the room again. Louis groans internally, walking towards the room and opening the door. 

Harry’s sleeping soundly in the bottom bunk, Dotty fast asleep on his chest. Louis wishes he had his phone, or a camera, so he could capture the beautiful picture they make forever. He rolls his eyes at himself, stumbling back into the kitchen and fixing himself a bowl of coco pops. 

After he’s had a few bites, he ruffles Ernie’s hair. He points at Zayn. “Tell me about Liam.” He doesn’t phrase it as a question, as it is a demand. He needs to know the guy if he’s going to be around his siblings, and yes, he does trust Zayn with everything he has, but the fact still remains that an unknown Alpha scent is not good in their current circumstances. 

Zayn pushes his cereal bowl away, only the chocolatey milk left. “I met him through the hospital. You know I meet the kids there for my art classes.”

Louis stuffs his mouth full of coco pops. Oh right, he forgot about Zayn’s art classes for terminally ill children, bless him. “And why were you with him when all this went down?”

Louis could swear that he’s seeing a blush taint Zayn’s cheeks. “We were having lunch.”

“So you’re friends?”

“Look, Lou,” Zayn says, looking seriously in his eyes. “I swear that he’s trustworthy. He was studying to become a pediatrician. He loves kids, and I for one, would trust him with any child. He’s seriously a good person, I can vouch for it.”

Louis keeps the eye contact, then slowly nods. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Zayn nods in response. 

\------

It’s been a week since they got there. The cabin has been a good place for them so far, they feel safe in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the woods. Louis knows that there are neighboring cabins out there, but so far they haven’t seen or heard anything to indicate that one of them might be in use.

The best thing about the cabin, though, is that they still have electricity, thanks to the solar panels on the roof. Zayn had said his father had built a backup generator in case the electricity ever went out, and that makes him feel that much safer. 

They still have hot water. They have no idea why, but they’re counting it as a blessing anyway. The tap water isn’t safe to drink anymore, though, so they’ve been using the water bottles that Zayn had collected on his way here. They’re going to run out of them soon.

There’s also enough food to last them a while longer, as they had all been smart enough to bring as much as they could. 

Things are getting tense though. He and Harry have barely spoken the whole time. In fact, the only time they tried to get on each other’s good side for the sake of the group, they had ended up fucking in Harry’s bed with the door locked.  Safe to say, they don’t get along. 

Louis wants to change that though, as he’s beginning to fall for the curly haired Omega, whose smile lights up a room, whose dimples create craters that the twins love to poke at. 

Zayn’s outside with the twins, letting them play in the small garden behind the cabin. Louis doesn’t have any idea where Liam is, and they’re not particularly friends yet, as they haven’t gotten along as well as Zayn had hoped. Louis walks into Harry’s room, finding him reading some book in his bunk. 

“So, do we have to fight so much?” Louis asks. 

Harry looks up from his book, barely even glancing at him before his eyes go back to the page. “If you’re here to start one, I’m not interested.”

“I’m trying to ask you if we have to fight every single time we talk,” Louis grumbles, already getting annoyed. “What part of my earlier question did you not understand?”

Harry throws the book onto the pillow resting beside him, narrowing his eyes at Louis. “Are you trying to start a fight right now?”

Louis knows he’s been caught, he wants to have sex, but how does he approach Harry for it, when they only do it when they fight?

“Is it working?” Louis asks, not denying it. 

“Well I’m already pretty fucking pissed off,” Harry says, crossing his arms. “Now what do you really want from me?”

“I want to fuck,” Louis blurts it out, without meaning to. There’s a beat of silence before Harry’s up and out of his bunk, dragging Louis into a hard kiss. The next thing he knows, they’re fucking against the wall.

\-----

After he admitted to starting a fight on purpose just so they could have sex, things between them changed. They’re not as cautious, and they’re not as mean to each other as before.

Things aren’t perfect. But they’re not bad either. 

They start having sex whenever they can. If the twins are sleeping, they have sex. If Zayn’s out with the twins, they have sex. If Liam is showing the twins cool medical books, they have sex. Any spare moment, they’re having sex. 

Louis doesn’t quite know how to deal with that yet. 

\-----

It's only been three days since they've last fucked, and Louis is itching for more.

He's not even remotely close to his rut, so the only explanation for his clingy horny-ness is that his hormones are beginning to think Harry's his mate.

There's also the other thing. He's taken to cuddling after sex. Cuddling with  _ Harry _ after sex.

He needs to distance himself away from Harry. Only in the sense of no sex for a while. His hormones can't go wild thinking his mate is near him and that he needs to take care of them ASAP if he so much as gets a whiff of slick or arousal. 

Yeah. He can do that. 

He can avoid sex with Harry.

\-----

He can't.

He so can't avoid sex with Harry.

His resolve lasted a day.

A day where he denied Harry sex once and then he'd wanked in the shower so hard he almost fainted when he finally came.

His hormones are really fucking with his mind. 

Because he's really started to feel like Harry's his mate.

_ His _ omega.

He has to forcibly restrain himself from biting Harry's skin in the juncture of where his shoulder and neck meet. 

Where a mating bite would be.

He's fucked. He's gone and fallen for his enemy.

\-----

Louis can't sleep. 

His skin feels so hot, like he's running a fever. His nose has been runny all day, and has wiped his nose more times than has had to wipe the twins nose today.

And that's saying something. Because the twins are only three and they're almost made of snot.

He disgusts himself by wiping the snot off his nose by the bottom of his white t-shirt. He winces and takes it off.

The twins are snoring, all cuddled up together on his left side.

He stares at them for a moment. Running his fingers through Dotty's long red locks. She's the one who looks more like their mum, and seeing her whenever she smiles, all he can see is the ghost of their mother.

He kisses each twins forehead before he gets up, dizzily walking through the bedroom door and closing it softly behind him.

He sneaks across the hall, opening the door to Harry's room quietly. "Harry?" He whispers into the dark room. Even as his voice is a whisper, he's still raspy.

He really is sick. And he just wants some cuddles from his omega.

Not that Harry knows he's his omega yet. Or. Whatever. "Hazza?"

"Since when do you call me Hazza?" Harry's sleep-addled voice asks.

"Since now," Louis tries to act casual by shrugging his shoulder. "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"I don't wanna fuck right now, thanks," Harry says, turning away from him and burrowing deeper into his blankets.

Louis plays with the strings on his pyjama trousers, looking up nervously at the silhouette of the omega he so desperately needs. "I meant for cuddles. I'm…" He knows how vulnerable he must sound. "I'm not feeling very well."

Harry sits up, turning on the lap on his bedside table. "What?"

Louis keeps his gaze down on the floor. He sniffles, trying to keep the snot from leaking unattractively from his nose. "Sorry, never mind. I'll just go."

He turns around to leave, but gets stopped by Harry's soft voice. "Wait."

Louis turns back around, facing Harry, who scoots over until he's flush to the wall in the tiny bunk, lifting the blankets invitingly. "Come here."

Louis doesn't need to be told twice, and he doesn't hesitate in moving into the bunk, burrowing himself deep into Harry's chest.

He falls asleep before he can wait for Harry's reaction.

\-----

After the night that Louis had sneaked into Harry's bed for cuddles, it becomes a regular thing.

He doesn't know what Harry's thinking, but it's like an unspoken agreement that very night, after the twins go to sleep, Louis will sneak into Harry's bed.

Sometimes they have sex. One time they even fucked so hard that Zayn knocked on their door to tell them to shut up.

He doesn't regret it.

And most nights, he'd rather just cuddle. Harry hasn't said anything about it, but he really wants them to try being together.

Like a relationship. Courting. Mates.

He just needs to find the right time to broach the subject.

\-----

They're lying in Harry's bunk. Harry's head is resting on Louis’ chest, and he can't hold it in any longer.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

He hopes Harry can't hear how hard his heart is beating in his chest. "Would you like to maybe try being like…. Together? With me?"

Harry sits up, staring into his eyes curiously. "You want to be my boyfriend? My Alpha?"

Louis nods, biting his lip. "Do you?"

Harry breaks eye contact, looking at nothing in particular as to avoid Louis' eyes. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Why?" Louis can't help the way his voice almost breaks. He can feel how his heart is shattering.

He's being rejected by his Omega. Or. Not his Omega.

"Look, Louis," Harry starts, playing around with a hangnail on his thumb. "I just don't know if we fit. I like you, I don't hate you like I used to, and the sex, god, the sex is the best I've had, but I think we should just be friends."

"Okay," Louis smiles, even though he feels like crying for a year. "Friends. We can do that."

He goes back to sleeping in his own bed with the twins after that.

He tried to stop having sex with Harry, but he can never resist the Omega. Will never be able to resist it.

Their tentative friendship is weird, but it's good. As long as he gets to be around Harry, be close to him in any way he can, he'll be okay.

\-----

Harry’s been jittery all week, and clingy. He’s been very cuddly every time they fuck, nuzzling into his neck and licking and nipping at his shoulder. He doesn’t know why. 

Liam is the one to break first. “Harry, can I talk to you? In private?”

Louis can’t help the growl that escapes him, and he blushes. He runs out to the porch, lighting a cigarette and inhaling the smoke. He should really kick the habit, but it’s become such a crutch of comfort during these times. He takes his time, enjoying the feeling the nicotine gives him. 

He puts out the cigarette, and throwing it on the ashtray on the small table that sits beside the swing. 

When he walks in, he can smell Harry’s shock, before he notices his face. He’s pale, holding onto Liam’s hand. Louis almost bares his teeth, but settles on squeezing himself forcefully in between Liam and Harry, effectively making their hands lose contact. He leans into Harry’s side. “What’s wrong, Haz?”

Harry blinks up at him, opening his mouth to speak, before letting out a shaky breath and closing his mouth again. He looks at Liam, and Louis looks between them, confused as to what’s going on. 

Liam gets up, squeezing Harry’s shoulder. “You need to tell him.” Then he walks out of room, leaving them alone. Louis bites his lip. “What’s going on, Haz?”

Harry grips his arm tightly, dragging him into his room. He closes the door behind them, turning towards Louis, his eyes almost looking through him. “I’m pregnant.”

“You-,” Louis sits down on the bunk, squeezing his eyes shut and running his hands through his hair. “How the fuck are you pregnant?”

“How the fuck do you think?”

Louis shakes his head, rubbing his eyes in frustration. “How the fuck could you get pregnant?”

Louis didn’t say it to be rude, or mean, or anything of the sort. He’s just struggling to process it. “YOU are the one who knotted me!”

Louis gets up, pacing back and forth. “And you fucking begged for it.”

“Oh, so it’s only my fault?” Harry asks, his nostrils flaring angrily. “Maybe you should’ve stopped to think before you knotted inside of me!”

“Maybe you should have stopped me!” Louis snaps, still pacing. “Maybe I should’ve just left you in your fucking flat.”

Harry’s breath hitches, his eyes filling with tears. “If that’s what you think of me. I’ll leave.”

“Fucking leave, then, see if I care.”

Harry turns around, wrenching the door open and running out, slamming it behind him. Louis lets himself fall back onto the bunk, grabbing Harry’s pillow and screaming into it. 

\-----

He doesn’t know how long it’s been since he cooled down, but he isn’t ready to face Harry just yet. There’s a knock on the door, and Louis assumes it’s Harry. He knows it’s time to apologise for what he said. He hadn’t meant it. 

The door opens, Liam walking in. “Where’s Harry?”

“Isn’t he with you?”

Liam walks out of the room, with Louis hot on his heels. They find Zayn and the twins in the hot tub, splashing around. That’s when he realises it. He can’t smell Harry. He isn’t here.

“Fuck,” He yells out, running back into the house and out the front door. He looks around at all the trees surrounding them, and his breathing gets shallower. Harry’s out there, alone. He’s a pregnant unmated Omega and he’s all alone in the woods. All because Louis couldn’t control his temper. 

Louis follows his instinct, taking off into the woods, and running into whatever direction he feels that Harry might’ve gone. 

\-----

Louis’ so tired. 

He’s been running forever, and he’s been looking everywhere.

He can’t find Harry. He’s so worried about him.

He’s about to turn into another direction when he hears it. A laugh. He knows that laugh. 

He runs into the direction it comes from. 

Harry’s okay. He’s sitting in front of a fire, warming his hands. Louis heads for him so fast he almost trips, dragging him into a tight hug, that doesn’t get returned. He buries his face in Harry’s curls, scenting him. He feels tentative arms come up around him. 

“You don’t need to cover me with your scent,” Harry huffs out. “Niall’s a Beta, he can’t scent me anyway.”

Louis pushes out of the hug, turning around and noticing a man around their age sitting on the other side of the fire, holding a worn guitar. He growls, stepping in front of Harry. “Who the fuck are you?”

The man just laughs. “Harry, you didn’t tell me you had an Alpha.”

The man’s Irish. Louis can tell by his accent. The man is also way too cheerful. “I-” Harry starts, but Louis speaks, louder. “He does.”

Louis bares his teeth, ready for a fight. He needs to protect his Omega at all costs. Harry grabs his hand, forcibly dragging him down to sit next to him. “What the fuck, Lou?”

Louis blinks, grumpily crossing his arms in front of his chest. “You should come home, Haz.”

“Why?”

The question throws him off. He looks at Harry, and he can see the slight fear and hopefulness in those pretty green eyes of his. “I want you there, Haz.”

“Are you sure?” Harry asks, biting his lip. “You sure you don’t just feel guilty.”

“I’ve been tearing up these woods looking for you for I don’t even know how long,” Louis says, staring into the fire so Harry won’t see how dangerously close he is to crying. “Hazza, I care about you.”

He digs into his pocket for his cigarette, and he’s about to light it up when he remembers. Harry’s pregnant. He can’t smoke around him. He puts the cigarette back into the pack and shoves it into his pocket. Harry quirks a brow, and Louis pokes him in the stomach meaningfully. 

Harry’s cheeks go red, and he nods. “I’ll come home.”

Louis sags in relief, the tension leaving his shoulders.

“Only if Niall can come with us.”

That didn’t last long. His shoulders tense up again. He eyes Niall for a moment, who’s playing a quiet tune on the guitar and giving them privacy to talk. There’s a small tent a few paces behind him. He clears his throat, getting Niall’s attention. “How did you end up here?”

Niall stops playing. “Was on a camping trip from Ireland when all that shit went down. Was at the campsite about a day away.”

Louis considers him. The Beta man doesn’t look very intimidating, what with his bleached blond hair, with brunette roots, and his glasses. “Fine, you can come with us. But if you do  _ anything _ to harm my family, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

“Fair enough,” Niall says, getting up to pack his guitar in its ruined guitar case. “Thank you.”

Louis doesn’t answer. He gets up, helping Niall to pack his things so that they can get back to the cabin sooner. 

\-----

As soon as they walk through the door of the cabin, they’re engulfed in a group hug, Zayn and Liam almost squeezing the life out of them. “Thank fuck you’re here, we were worried sick!” Zayn says, kissing them both on the top of their heads. 

Louis leaves Harry to introduce Niall, getting a mattress from the top bunk in Harry’s room and depositing it on the floor in the living room. He points at it, interrupting the other’s conversation. “Niall, this is where you’ll sleep.”

Niall flops down onto the mattress. “God, thank you, I haven’t slept on anything except a cold hard ground in weeks.”

“You’re welcome,” Harry says sweetly. “I’m going to sleep, good night everyone.”

Louis desperately wants to go sleep with him, cuddle and kiss his hair. Tell him how much he cares for him. But he knows it’s not possible right now, not while they’re still on shaky ground. Besides, he needs to sleep on the couch, to make sure the new guy doesn’t do anything shady.

He walks into his room and kisses each sleeping twin’s forehead before walking back out into the living room, carrying blankets and pillows. 

He gives Niall one of each, and keeps the other for himself. 

Zayn and Liam bid them goodnight, and Louis waves them off. He stays awake until he’s sure that Niall’s asleep, before he lets sleep overtake him. 

He wakes up later to two arms coming to rest around his waist, and a head of curls laying on his chest. Harry. Louis sleepily kisses his hair before he passes out again. 

\-----

Louis wakes up to the twins’ excitedly chattering to someone. He sits up, looking in to the kitchen to see Harry at the stove, smiling as he cooks whatever’s in the pan. He doesn’t quite know how to feel about the twins chattering on to Niall on the floor, though. He’s letting them putter with his guitar, showing them chords and playing. 

He walks into the kitchen, grabbing a plate of the instant noodles that Harry’s been cooking in the pan. He keeps an eye on Niall and the twins as he eats. 

After, he deposits the plate in the sink, leaving the kitchen to knock on Zayn’s door. 

It opens to reveal a shirtless and sleepy Liam. “What’s up?”

“Zayn awake?”

Liam looks back into the room. “Barely.”

“Good enough for me,” Louis says. “You gonna let me in?”

Liam shrugs, opening the door to let him in. Louis stops in his tracks. The two twin beds that used to be on opposite sides of the room have been pushed together in the middle. Zayn blinks up at him from the bed, sleepily. “You and Liam?”

Zayn sits up, stretching. “Mhmmm.” 

Louis sits down on the end of the bed, crossing his legs. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“Thought you knew,” Zayn says. “We weren’t hiding it. Well, not anymore.”

“Okay,” Louis looks at them both, Liam has joined Zayn on the bed, and Zayn immediately cuddles into his side. “You guys make a good couple.”

“Really?” Liam asks, eyebrows raised high in surprise.

“Nope,” Louis says, popping the ‘P’. “Knew about Zayn being an alphist a long time ago.”

“Wait, you did?” Zayn mirrors Liam’s face, surprise clear on his features.

“Yeah,” Louis shrugs. “You had a huge crush on that Alpha boy in our maths class in sixth form.”

Zayn groans, hiding his face in Liam’s shoulder. “Was I really that obvious?”

“Not to anyone else,” Louis says. “Just me.”

“Good,” Zayn presses a kiss on Liam’s shoulder before he straightens up. “Now, what did you want to talk about?”

“Right,” Louis bites his lip. “We need to get supplies, food, water. We need to go into town.”

“Yeah,” Liam agrees. “We really do. Harry needs prenatal vitamins. I need to find a book on how to do a C-Section safely outside a hospital.”

“Fuck,” Louis drops down onto the bed in defeat. “I forgot male Omegas can’t give birth normally.”

“Luckily for you,” Zayn runs his fingers through Louis’ hair as he speaks. “Liam started out learning obstetrics before he settled on pediatrics.”

“You think you can do it?” Louis asks. Then clarifies. “You think you can do it  _ safely _ ?”

“I know I can,” Liam says firmly. “I shadowed midwives sometimes.”

“Good,” Louis nods. “But I’m telling you now, if anything happens to Harry, you'll regret it.”

“You have my word that he’ll be as safe as can be.”

“Good.”

\-----

They gather around the kitchen table after Louis has left the twins in their room with enough toys to last a little while. Louis takes a sip of his tea, and he hates it. He finished all the Yorkshire tea about three days ago, and he’s going crazy for his next fix.

After he puts his mug back onto the table, he clears his throat in an effort to gather all the attention on himself. “This tea is shit.”

Harry snorts out a laugh, covering his mouth with his hand. “Is that what you gathered us to say?”

“No,” Louis waves him off. “I was just stating a fact. Now, the reason I’ve gathered us together is to say that we need to go into the city. We need to gather more food, and water, and-” He looks at Niall for a split second. “And your medicine.” He looks at Harry meaningfully. 

“Yeah, okay,” Harry agrees. “When are we leaving?”

Liam grabs Louis’ arm, effectively shutting up whatever rant was about to come out of his mouth. “No, you’ll be staying here, with me. Doctor’s orders.”

Harry leans back in his chair, crossing his arms across his chest. “I’m not fucking useless, you know? I can go on a supply run.”

“Not in your condition, you can’t,” Louis startles even himself at the fact he had just used his Alpha voice. He never, ever used his Alpha voice. Harry’s staring at him, open mouthed, eyebrows raised to the sky. “Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry,” Louis feels scolded, even though nobody had said much. He picks up his mug, staring into it at the clear brown water. He takes a sip. He fucking hates this tea. 

“Well,” Niall says, as nonchalantly as he can muster. “When are we leaving?”

“You want to come with us?” Zayn asks. “You want to risk it?”

“I’ve killed enough zombies by myself,” Niall admits. “I was alone out there for weeks. I’ll be more help with you lads.”

Louis gets up from the table. “Great, then it’s settled. We’ll be leaving in an hour.”

\-----

Louis sits down in between the twins, kissing each of their heads. “Hey, loves, can we talk?”

“Yes, Achoo,” Ernie says, Dotty nodding in agreement. Louis gathers them both into his lap, cuddling them tightly. “Well, you know how we’ve been eating noodles and oatmeal for a few days?”

“Yes,” Dotty says. “I don’t like it.”

“No, I suppose I’m getting tired of it meself,” Louis agrees. “So, me and uncle Zayn, and Niall are going outside to the city for a bit. We’re going to get more food. And you two have to stay here with Harry and Liam. Is that okay?”

“You come back?” Ernie asks, holding the fabric of Louis’ jumper tightly in his palm. Louis squeezes them tighter to his chest. “Of course I’m coming back, darling.”

“Okay.”

“You sure?” Louis asks, directing the question at Dotty. She sniffs him, then whispers “Okay.”

“Good,” Louis says, he picks them up abruptly, throwing them both onto the bed and tickling their sides. Shrieks of laughter fill the room, and he smiles, laughing right along with them.

He spends the rest of his hour before leaving with them, playing and getting a few cuddles and kisses in between. 

\-----

Louis has made himself as ready as he can be. He’s got his pocket knife, as well as one of those building hammers he found in the storage shed in the back of the cabin. He’s got on an old worn leather jacket, not particularly warm, but works well for him anyway. 

He slips his feet into his black vans, quickly tying the shoelaces. He walks into Harry’s room, knocking on the open door to announce his presence to the Omega, who’s got his nose almost pressed to the pages of his book. “Hey.”

Harry looks up, earmarking the corner of the page and closing the book. “Hey.”

Louis walks further into the room, leaving the door ajar behind him. “I just wanted to say…” he trails off, just staring at the wall behind Harry’s head. He doesn’t know how to ask for what he wants. 

Harry seems to sense it, as he gets up, gathering Louis into a tight hug. “Be safe.”

Louis hugs him back, tighter than he’ll admit. “I will.”

Then he turns around, leaving the room. He waves at Liam on his way out of the front door of the cabin, walking down the path towards the parked Range Rover. He sits down in the passenger seat. “Let’s go.”

Zayn starts the engine, driving away from the cabin. Louis finds it harder than he thought, leaving the twins and Harry in the cabin in the middle of nowhere. Sure, they’re not alone. They have Liam, who is perfectly capable of protecting them, but Louis feels like it’s his job, as their Alpha. 

He bites his lip. He shouldn't think of himself as their Alpha. Sure, he’s the twins main Alpha, their caretaker, but Harry. It’s more complicated. He and Harry aren’t mated, they aren’t even together. But. 

Harry’s carrying his pup. Their pup. And Louis had used his Alpha voice on him. He’s scented him, knotted him, done everything but mate him. 

_ Bloody hell, _ Louis thinks,  _ I’m in love with him. _

He stares out of the window as the scenery of trees turn into dirt roads, that later turn into motorways. The silence in the car doesn’t feel heavy, rather it feels more like anticipatory. 

They’re about to enter a city for the first time since a deadly zombie virus killed almost everyone and destroyed almost everything. They have no idea what to expect when they arrive. 

\-----

Louis spots a petrol station up ahead, he sits up in his seat, letting his feet fall down from the dashboard. “We need to stop at the petrol station.”

“For what?” Zayn asks, but he does slow down to a stop in front of it. “What do we need here?”

“Zayn,” Louis deadpans, looking at him like it’s obvious. 

Zayn shrugs. “What?”

“We need to look for supplies anywhere we can possibly find them.”

“Oh, yeah,” Zayn smiles sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m a little out of it.”

“Well, snap back into it,” Louis snaps. “One mistake out here and you’re dead.”

“I know, Lou, Jesus,” Zayn unbuckles his seatbelt, moving to get out of the car. “Wait,” Niall’s hand shoots in to hold Zayn’s shoulder. “We don’t know how many of them are here.”

“Right,” Zayn mutters. “What should we do, then?”

“Lock the doors,” Niall instructs, and right after they’ve locked them, he reaches forward and beeps the horn twice. Louis jerks. “What the fuck?”

Niall shushes him. “I have experience out in the wild, where one of those things could appear at any moment, you don’t, so listen to my fucking advice.”

They wait, for what, Louis isn’t sure. Three zombies appear, walking out from behind the station right towards them. Niall steps out of the car, ignoring Louis’ shout of “what the fuck are you doing!”

They watch as Niall reaches into the back of his pants, pulling out a gun and shooting all three zombies in the head with no hesitation. They watch him as he walks into the station, and hear the gun go off one more time before Niall’s back outside, walking towards Zayn’s door and knocking on the window.

Zayn rolls it down. “You have a fucking gun?”

“Yeah,” Niall says as he puts the safety back on and stuffing it back into his pants. “It’s the quickest way to kill ‘em.”

“You had the fucking gun the whole fucking time?” Louis yells, unfastening his seatbelt and storming out of the car, walking around it to punch Niall in the face. “We have  _ pups _ living with us. They’re  _ three _ , are you insane?”

Niall rubs his face, his eyes narrowing. “Tell me, Louis, how many zombies have you seen? Killed?”

Louis is still having a hard time keeping his anger in check. Clenching his jaw and blinking rapidly. “Seen a few, killed one. You shouldn’t have brought _ a gun _ near  _ my three year old pups _ . So tell me, what the fuck were you thinking?”

“I’m thinking having this gun could save their fucking lives if a zombie happens to appear near them.”

Louis winces, he hates that it makes sense. It’s still not okay with him, but he has no idea what to say now, so he just storms into the station. He grabs a shopping basket, and walks up to the clear shop fridges, taking all the water bottles he can find, which aren’t as many as he’d have liked. 

He still manages to fill the basket with them. He walks back out and puts the basket into the boot of the car. He walks back into the station, ignoring Niall’s presence in it, and grabs another basket. He fills it with all the Yorkshire tea, instant noodles and granola bars he can find, then stores the basket in the boot of the car, next to the other one. 

He wipes his brow, a bead of sweat running down his forehead. It’s not hot outside, but he’s sweating anyway, from what, he has no idea. 

He makes himself comfortable in the front seat, propping his feet up on the dashboard as he waits for the lads to come back from the station. 

They do after a few minutes. Zayn puts a couple of Patrol containers into the boot of the car before he gets into the driver’s seat. Niall joins, getting into the back and getting himself comfortable by laying down with his feet up. 

Louis turns around to look at him, giving him a hard stare. “When we get back, you will give me the gun if you want to stay with us. You can have it while we’re out and about, but not in my house.”

Niall doesn’t react to his words. “Do you know how to use it?”

“No,” Louis snaps. “But you’re not going to have that gun around my family.”

“Fair enough,” Niall laments, closing his eyes as he settles in for a nap for the long way into town.

\------

They’ve been driving for a while, the silence between them not exactly uncomfortable, but still slightly strained. Louis just keeps looking out of the window, at how empty everything is. They’ve seen bodies, zombies, car wrecks, everything. It’s devastating.

“Hey, is that a Costco?” Niall’s voice startles him, and he turns around to look at him. “Where?”

“There,” He points to the right, almost blinding Zayn in the process. Zayn smacks his arm away. “I’m driving, idiot.”

“I know, but there’s no traffic,” Niall replies, shrugging. Louis snorts. “You think traffic is the only cause of car accidents?”

“Good point, didn’t really think of that,” Niall says. He points in the direction of Costco again.  “We should go there, there should be plenty of shit we need there.”

“That’s actually…” Louis wants to disagree with Niall, he does. He doesn’t like the guy, but this isn’t the worst idea. He used to go with his mum on shopping trips to Costco whenever they needed something in bulk, like nappies or juice boxes. “That’s actually not a bad idea, Zayn.”

“Do you think it’s safe?” Zayn asks, sceptically turning to the right towards the huge store. “I mean, aren’t there always people there?”

“Most people are dead now, Zayn,” Niall says. “We don’t need to worry about that.”

Zayn rolls his eyes. “Yeah, but a lot of dead people equals a lot of zombies.”

“Didn’t the whole virus thing start spreading during the night?” Niall asks, quirking an eyebrow. “Cause I’m pretty certain that Costco is closed during the night.”

“They have night shifts,” Louis cuts in. “So there’s definitely going to be zombies in there. How many? We don’t know. Maybe around thirty I would guess.”

“How do you know so much about Costco shifts?” Niall asks, quirking an eyebrow.

“One of my mates worked there for a summer once,” Louis says. “And he worked the night shift.”

“So we need a plan,” Niall lounges back into the backseat. “But first, we need to figure out how many of them are in there.”

Zayn drives all the way around to the back of the building, where the employee entrance is. The door is closed, surrounded by a horde of zombies, and the herd starts walking towards them. “Fuck!” Zayn exclaims, backing up the car and driving as fast as he can away, back to the motorway. “Shit, that would’ve not ended well.” 

Louis takes deep breaths to calm down his racing heart. “Safe to say we’re not going in there, huh lads?”

“Not necessarily,” Niall pipes up, calm as can be. “That wasn’t that big of a herd. Not the biggest I’ve seen, anyway.”

“Okay, then, wise guy,” Louis snaps. “What’s your plan?”

“We need to stash the car somewhere,” Niall thinks out loud, looking around at their surroundings. “In case we need to escape in a hurry. Then you two sneak behind somewhere close to the employee entrance while I create a diversion to get the herd here to the car park.”

“That’s it?” Zayn asks, sceptical. “That’s your plan? How do we get everything back to my car after we’ve gotten all the supplies? How much are we planning on taking? There’s a lot of holes in your plan.”

“Have you survived on your own with no shelter for a month?” Niall snaps, his voice has a hard edge to it that Louis doesn’t quite like. Louis doesn’t care either way anymore, just wants to get all this over with. “Let’s just do this shit. Niall, if we die, it’s your fault that my pups grow up without me.”

“I thought you’re only their brother,” Niall says.

“They’re my pups,” Louis growls out. “I’m their only parent, so fuck off.”

Niall raises his hands up into the air in a show of surrender. “Put those claws away, I was only making a comment.”

Louis crosses his arms across his chest, huffing in annoyance. “Let’s just get this over with.”

They stash the car in the corner of the parking lot, where it’d be easy to run towards and escape. Then he drags Zayn to a makeshift shelter behind an old truck that rests on the motorway that leads to the back of the building, where the employee entrance is. They have a good enough view of the car park. 

They watch as Niall walks calmly over to a parked car somewhere on the other side. He jams open the door with a pocket knife he got out of his jean pocket. He gets onto his knees, and starts fiddling with something under the wheel on the floor, where the foot pedals are. “What’s he doing?” Louis whispers, anxiously chewing on his lip.

“I have no idea, mate,” Zayn whispers back. “I think maybe starting the car?”

Just as the words have left Zayn’s mouth, the car Niall broke into starts, the headlights turning on. Niall looks over to them, gives them a thumbs up before he jams his hand onto the wheel, honking the car repeatedly. Zayn and Louis both startle, holding each other’s hands tightly. “Shit, what the fuck is he doing!” Louis whispers out harshly, mostly to himself.

They watch the zombie herd from before move slowly towards the noise, and they both hold their breath, not moving an inch. Louis can feel how hard his heart is beating in his chest, watching how many zombies have already walked past them. He’s never been aware of how mortal he truly is before, but seeing so many of them walk past, all of them capable of killing him, turning him. It fucks with him. 

And by Zayn’s hard grip on his hand, he can only guess that he feels the same way.

He has no idea how long it’s been when the last zombie walks past them, but he lets out a sigh of relief. It simultaneously felt like hours and minutes all at once. Zayn sags into him. “What now?”

Louis shushes him, pointing at the way that Niall’s surrounded by the ugly things. He stands on top of the car, which is covered all around in the creatures. He uses his pocket knife and snatches one of the zombies up onto the car, jamming his knife into its skull. He cuts into the zombies stomach, then he smears the blood from it all over himself.

Louis gags, looking away quickly. “Ew what the fuck.”

“Same,” Zayn mutters, wiping his mouth after vomiting on the ground beside him. 

They both stay silent, focusing on their breathing while getting over the nausea caused by what Niall just did. 

“What are you fuckers waiting for?” Niall says, appearing beside them. “Get in the store.”

“How did you-” Zayn starts.

“-Their blood masks our smell,” Niall shrugs. “They think I’m one of them now.”

“That’s so disgusting,” Louis says, gagging again at the smell. “So fucking disgusting.” 

“Well, get over it,” Niall shrugs, then starts walking in the direction of the employee entrance. He turns around towards them, while he keeps walking backwards. “We’ll also steal that truck, that way we can take more stuff.” 

Louis shares a glance with Zayn, sure they’re both thinking the same thing.  _ Who the fuck is this guy? _

\-----

_ “Fuck,”  _ Louis stomps on of his feet onto the ground in frustration. “We should’ve thought of this fucking shit.”

“Wait,” Zayn stares at the door for a minute, thinking. “Electricity still works right?”

“For some reason, yeah,” Louis says. “Why?”

“This is an electric door, opens only if you know the code to open it,” Zayn points to the keypad. “There.”

“No worries, lads,” Niall opens the keypad, using his bloodied knife to get the keypad off. He starts playing around with the wires. “I’ve got this.”

“Seriously,” Louis says, staring wide-eyed. “ _ Who are you? _ ”

“My brother was a computer hacker,” Niall shrugs one of his shoulders, continuing to play with the wires. “Taught me some shit.”

The door opens, and a group of about 10 zombies start moving slowly towards them. Niall rolls his eyes. “Get behind me, lads.”

He gets some bullets out of his back pocket, putting them into his gun and loading it. He shoots six of them in the head in quick succession before he refills the gun with more bullets and shoots the other four. “See, guns work.”

“Still don’t want them around my pups,” Louis snaps, almost growls. “Let’s just get our shit. Zayn you get all the water you can find, as well as some other shit that’s still safe to drink, I’ll focus on the baby things. Niall, get all the edible things you can find. We’ll meet back here after we’ve filled out shopping carts.”

“Wait,” Niall stops Zayn with a hand on the bicep. “Use one of those flatbed thingies, they can carry more than a measly shopping cart.”

Zayn just nods, getting a flatbed and dragging it out and into the store. Louis wordlessly gets a flatbed as well and starts his journey through the store. It’ll take him a while to find everything he needs to find, as the store is huge.

\-----

Louis is standing on his tippy toes, reaching out for a big pack of night nappies for the twins when he hears it. He looks quickly towards the noise, and sees a zombie shuffling towards him. He loses his balance and falls down on his front, landing harsly on the floor, and a piercing pain flares from his shoulder.

He ignores it as he gets his pocket knife from his back pocket, opening it and stabbing the zombie in the eye. It falls down with a thud. It takes him a while to get the knife out again, and then he wipes it on the nearest surface, which is a shelf full of sanitary pads.

Wait. Sanitary pads. Won’t he need those in a few years for Dotty?

He shakes his head. Dotty won’t need them for at least 10 more years, what’s the point in worrying about it now?

But what if they can’t get them in 10 years?

He grabs the lot of them and throws them with his other things on the flatbed. That’s when he notices how wet his shoulder is. It’s blood. His shoulder is bleeding. A piece of glass is sticking out of it. _ Fuck.  He takes it out of the wound without thinking.  _ “Fuck.” He whispers it harshly out loud to himself.  _ I’m an idiot _ , he thinks,  _ I should’ve left it in.  _

God, he’s gonna faint.

No. 

He refuses to let this stop him. He grabs a packet of one of the sanitary pads, ripping it open and holding one against his wound. He puts the open packet in the smaller shelf thingy on the flatbed. Then he continues doing his part one handed, grabbing whatever he needs throughout the store. 

\-----

He’s the last of them to show up at the back entrance with his flatbed full to the brim. Zayn and Niall are sitting on the edge of Zayn’s flatbed, chatting amicably, which surprises Louis a bit, since he was sure that Zayn disliked the Irish lad just as much as he did.

Zayn stops mid sentence, sniffing the air before his gaze falls on Louis. He gets up abruptly and paces up to him. He frantically replaces Louis’ hand with his own, holding the sanitary pad harshly against the wound. “What the fuck happened? How long have you been bleeding?”

Niall strides up to them, narrowing his eyes at Louis. “And more importantly, has your wound been in contact with a zombie?”

“No,” Louis grits out through his teeth, he’s in enough pain as it is, he doesn’t need an Irish Beta questioning him. “I fell on a piece of glass.”

“And how did that happen?” Niall asks, staring at his wound. “Did you trip?”

“No, a zombie shuffled up a few paces behind me,” Louis breathes in deeply, trying to forget how much his shoulder is throbbing now. “I fell on my face, then I stood up and stabbed the thing in the eye. No contact made other than that.”

“So you’re not infected, that’s good,” Niall sits back down onto his flatbed casually. “Did you happen to find some tape? I can dress your shoulder. I’m no doctor, but it’ll have to do.”

“Liam’s a doctor,” Zayn pipes in, still hovering over Louis like a mother hen. “As long as it’s good enough until we get back, then it’s fine.”

“I got some duct tape on there,” Louis points at his flatbed. Niall gets up to grab it, then maneuvers Louis so he’s sitting on the flatbed. “Your shirt’s completely ruined, mate, better just take it off.”

Louis nods, starting to take it off, but winces at the sharp pain. Zayn helps him take off his jacket and shirt, leaving him shirtless. Niall gets one two of the sanitary pads and the duct tape. “Wait!” Zayn exclaims. “Don’t we need to sanitise the wound?”

Niall stares at the wound, biting his lip. “You’re right. Got some vodka in my flatbed, grab one of them bottles.”

“Where’d you find the vodka?” Louis asks, happy for a distraction. 

“The alcohol cage,” Niall replies. “Broke into it, used the same wire trick.”

“Cool,” Louis says, closing his eyes as he leans back. He gets a slap in the face, inhaling sharply. “What the fuck?”

Niall shrugs at him. “You can’t lose consciousness.”

“Right.”

Zayn walks up to them, with the opened vodka bottle. He doesn’t hesitate in pouring a generous amount over Louis’ wound. “FUCK!” Louis yells out, almost passing out at the pain of it.

Niall inhales sharply. “Shit, mate, your wound’s fucked.”

Zayn peeks at it as well, biting his lip as his eyes widen. “Liam will have to stitch you up good.”

“Whatever,” Louis says, panting. “Just dress me shoulder so we can get home sooner.”

Niall presses the pads against his shoulder, making Zayn hold them in place while he tapes them to his skin. “Right, this should work for now.”

Louis just nods. He’s been doing a lot of nodding in the past few minutes he notes. He’s blaming it on the pain. “How are we going to get all this back with just one car?”

“We’re one step ahead of ya, mate,” Zayn says with a small smile tugging at his lips. “Niall already went outside and hotwired some cars. You good to drive?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Louis says, getting up to fast and falling back down onto his ass. “Sorry, headrush.”

“You truly sure?” Zayn asks again. “Really sure?”

“I can fucking drive,” Louis replies, annoyed. “Mum.”

Zayn rolls his eyes in response. “You’re not doing any heavy lifting. You wait here while me and Niall fill up the cars.”

“Sure,” Louis can’t help but feel relieved that they’re not making him do any lifting. It would just fuck up his injury even more. 

\-----

An hour later and they’re finally on their way home, with three full cars of supplies, including food, water, and Louis’ favorite of all, coco pops. He won’t be able to use real milk, but the almond milk that Zayn found works just as well, as it hasn’t expired and won’t for a couple more months.

Driving with no music is so boring. Driving one handed, with throbbing pain in his shoulder while also having no music is hell.

God, he misses Spotify. He misses music.

They need to find one of those CD player things and get a bunch of CD’s for the cabin. They have electricity so why not take advantage of it?

He resolves to do that the next time they go on a supply run.

He’s been driving with his good hand, in an effort to lessen the pain of his bad shoulder, but it’s not really working at all. 

He feels something wet on his bad shoulder, and he desperately wishes that he’s imagining it. He glances down, noticing that the blood has seeped through his makeshift bandage. 

“Shit,” Louis whispers to himself. He bites his lip and breathes through the anxiety. He’s almost at the cabin, he can do this.

\-----

As soon as he’s parked the car in front of the path that leads to the cabin, he cuts off the engine and stumbles out of the car, his good hand clutching at his shoulder. His chest and arm is covered with blood, dried in some places from the long car journey.

As soon as he’s stepped foot into the cabin, a whine sounds, and Harry’s in front of him, frantically trying to help him stop the bleeding. “What happened?”

Louis loses his balance, dizzily falling into Harry’s arms. It’d be so easy to just fall asleep right here, in his Omega’s arms. He scents Harry, his nose buried in his neck. “Mmmm, Harry.” 

He closes his eyes, almost letting go of his consciousness. “Oh no, you don’t”

Next thing he knows he’s been thrown onto the sofa, and Liam’s wrenching his makeshift bandage off with expert fingers, a first aid kit open on the coffee table. Harry’s sitting next to him, holding tightly onto his good hand. 

“Louis, what happened?” Liam asks, filling a rag with some sort of liquid. 

“Fell on some glass while I was- FUCK!” Louis jolts up, getting pushed back down again by a firm hand. “What the fuck!”

“Sorry,” Liam smiles sheepishly, still running the wet rag over his wound. “Had to clean the wound. You need stitches.”

Niall appears behind Liam, holding a bottle of vodka. “Here, Louis, drink some.”

Louis wants to take hold of the bottle, but he doesn’t want to let go of the hand that’s resting tightly in his. Harry seems to read his mind, taking hold of the bottle and holding it to Louis’ lips.

Louis winces as some of the liquid burns on its way down his throat. “God, this is fucking shit.”

Harry kisses his forehead. “I know, baby, I know.”

Louis sags back into the couch, his vision going black, the last thing he hears before passing out is Harry’s soothing voice humming in his ear.

\-----

Louis comes to slowly, feeling a soft hand stroke his cheek. He opens his eyes, blinking as he focuses on Dotty, who’s standing in front of the sofa. “You’re awake, Achoo.”

She runs away, into Harry’s room, yelling his name. “Harry, Achoo’s awake.”

Harry’s out of the door in a heartbeat, appearing in front of Louis, letting out a breath of relief as he sinks to his knees in front of the sofa. “Baby.”

“Why am I not in pain?” Louis asks, when he moves up into a sitting position, leaning on some throw pillows. 

“Morphine,” Liam pipes up from behind him. He’s standing there, arms crossed, eyes narrowed as he watches him. Louis feels slightly uncomfortable under his scrutinising stare. “Where’d you get morphine?”

“My kit,” Liam shrugs. “I have a phial of it.”

“You just carry it around in your little doctor’s bag?”

“I am a doctor,” Liam says, eyes still narrowed. 

“What?” Louis wipes a hand across his face. “Is there something on my face?”

“No,” Liam shakes his head, his eyes no longer narrowed. “Was trying to decide if you need more medication for the amount of blood you lost.”

“And do I?” Louis asks curiously. “Do I need more medication for that?”

“Not much,” Liam says after a moment. “You’ll take iron tablets for the next two weeks, as well as eat your vegetables.”

“I already eat my vegetables.”

Liam blinks at him, the corner of his mouth lifting. “Yeah, right.”

“I do!” Louis brings a hand across his chest, his good hand, in mock offense. “How dare you accuse me!”

“Babe,” Harry chimes in, softly. “You don’t. You sneak them onto other people’s plates.”

“I do not!”

Harry kisses him. A quick peck on the lips. Louis blinks in surprise. “Oh.” He can feel the blush heating his cheeks. They’ve never done that before. Kissing for the sake of kissing. Kissing as a sign of affection. Louis likes it. He likes the change that’s developed in their relationship, the affection that’s now brimming between them.

He hopes Harry likes it too. And as he looks up at Harry through his lashes, seeing the way that Harry’s already staring at him, with such an open expression of love, he thinks he does.

\-----

Louis sits at the kitchen table, a notebook open as he scribbles down a list of things they need an inventory of. Because of his shoulder, he’s the one who has to do all the writing.

“How many water bottles do we have?” Louis asks after he’s finished writing down all the items they need to keep count of. 

“What’s ten times fourty?” Harry asks, as he sits on the floor surrounded by the Costco trademark water bottles. 

Louis raises his eyebrow at Harry, a tiny smirk on his face. “You’re joking, right?”

“No,” Harry’s lips form into an adorable pout. “I’m terrible at maths.”

“Babe,” Louis just shakes his head, as he already got his answer. He scribbles down the number 400 next to the word water. Louis’ nose scrunches up at the next item, he really doesn’t get how Zayn could drink that shit. “Coconut water bottles?”

“Like 40, I think.”

Louis scribbles down the number. “Juice boxes?”

“Do we really need to count each individual thing?” Harry whines from his place on the floor.

“Yes,” Louis replies. “We need it to know whenever we next need to go on a supply run.”

“Fine,” Harry huffs, grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil. There’s a moment of silence as he calculates it on paper before he speaks. “Exactly 96 pouches.”

“Good,” Louis nods. “Almond milk and coconut milk?”

“We have thirty gallons of almond milk and sixty cartons of coconut milk.”

“Great!” Louis happily scribbles it down, knowing how many bowls of cereal this will give him. “We don’t really need to count the soft drinks, do we?”

“Unless you want to keep count of them, no.”

Louis looks at the soft drinks shoved into the corner of the kitchen. He shrugs and leaves it be. “Good, we’re done here.”

“Uhh, Lou?” Harry asks, pointing at the foods around their kitchen. “Don’t we need an inventory of the food as well?”

“Ugh, fine.”

With that, Louis resigns himself to stay in the kitchen all day. 

\------

Louis looks on the clock that's hung up above the doorway in the kitchen, noticing they'd been here for almost three hours.

He looks over the list again. He's happy they have all of these things, and that he's got a good place to stay for his family.

The twins love it, anyway. 

He scribbles down the last item of the list, happy to finally be done. He looks up at Harry after he's read the list to him. "That's everything, right?" 

"Yeah," Harry nods from where he's stacking cans of beans into the closet above the sink. "We need to get more stuff for the baby, though."

"Right," Louis agrees, scribbling it down onto their list of things they need, for the next supply run. "Anything else?"

"You need wood to build a fence around the place," Niall's voice pops up behind them. He's leaning in the doorway, munching on some chips. "If you want the twins to be safe while they're playing outside."

Louis' tenses up, his relatively good mood almost vanished by Niall's presence alone. "Do you know how to build a fence?" He asks, his voice gives away how annoyed he is with the guy.

Niall walks further into the kitchen, taking a seat opposite Louis at the table. He glances at the list of things they need. "I do. I know a lot of things. You should add some wood to the list. I can build a good fence and then use the leftover wood for a cot."

Louis can practically feel his heart stop. "What?"

Niall shrugs, carries on talking as if he didn't just reveal a thing they desperately didn't want him to know before he'd properly earned their trust. "Speaking of cots, you need as much formula as you can get your hands on."

Harry moves from his spot quickly, taking the seat right next to Louis and puts his arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry, baby, we can trust Niall."

His muscles relax a tiny bit at Harry's touch alone, but he still can't just take Harry's word for it. He can't. "How can you be so sure?" he asks harshly, his fist clenched so tight around the pen that his knuckles are white. "How do you know you can trust him?" Then another question springs to his mind. One that he's been wondering since Niall revealed that he knows about their pup. He shrugs his shoulder, making Harry's arm fall off of it. "Did you tell him about our pup?"

Harry removes his hand completely from him, his eyes downcast as he stares down at the table, and Louis gets up from the table. "I can't believe how blindly trusting you are." Then he storms out of the room. He needs a fucking cigarette.

\------

Chain smoking is something he usually doesn't do, but this situation calls for it. 

He's lighting up his third cigarette when the front door opens, Harry stepping out. He looks cosy in his slightly too big lavender sweater. Louis puts out the cigarette as soon as Harry's within breathing distance of it.

"You didn't need to storm out like that," Harry says, his arms crossed against the cold. Louis can't help it, he takes his denim jacket off, gathering it snugly around Harry's shoulders. Harry burrows into it.

Louis stays silent for a minute. The time that this chain smoking session has brought him a little closer to the root of his problem with Niall.

It's that Niall's so cheerful, and he's always ready to help them, but he's also mysterious. They don't know anything about him or his past or how he came to be alone in the woods in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

There's also the added fact that Harry trusts him. Harry considers him a friend. And he's heard them whenever they hang out together, their loud laughs, their good natured humor.

It intimidates him. For some reason, his inner Alpha perceives Niall as a threat, even though he's only a Beta.

"I just don't trust him, is all," is what Louis settles on for an answer.

"Have you considered the fact," Harry takes a step closer. "That I was alone with him for more than an hour in the middle of the woods? And he decided to help me. He made the fire to keep me warm. He told me how he got there and I did the same."

"I still don't trust him," Louis says, biting his lip. He desperately wants to light up his cigarette again.

"I'm not asking you to trust him," Harry softly takes hold of Louis' shoulders, turning him so he's facing Harry directly. "I'm asking you to trust  _ me _ ."

Louis grabs hold of Harry's hands, removing them from his shoulders. "Why do you care what I think of him?"

"Because he's my friend and you're my a-" Harry visibly stops himself from saying it. "You're my pups dad." He corrects lamely.

Louis swallows heavily, blinking. "I'm your what?"

Harry shakes his head, taking a step back and looking towards the trees. 

"Harry," Louis takes a step forward, bringing him closer to Harry again. "Say it."

Harry's biting his lip, his jaw clenched as he runs an unsteady hand through his hair. He exhales visibly, looking up at Louis through nervous eyes. "You're… you're my Alpha."

Louis closes the distance between then in a heartbeat, bringing their mouths together into a soft kiss. He rests their foreheads together, caressing Harry's face with his thumbs. "And you're mine. My Omega."

\-----

After he’s put the twins to sleep, he gets up to join Harry in his room.

As soon as he’s through the door, Harry’s on him, kissing him deeply and roaming his hands underneath Louis’ shirt to feel his skin. 

“Mmm,” Louis moans. “Not that I’m not enjoying this, but to what do I owe this pleasure?”

“We’re together now,” Harry mumbles against his neck, still trailing kisses across his skin. “”I want you to make love to me. As my Alpha.”

“Love?”

“Yeah, baby,” Harry grazes his teeth against the skin on the juncture of his neck and shoulder. “Can we have sex? Even with your shoulder all fucked?”

“It’s been two weeks since I hurt my shoulder,” Louis cups Harry’s face in his hands, pressing short tender kisses all over his face. “I can handle some slow and tender lovin’.”

Harry drags him to the bunk, gently pushing Louis down onto it so he’s laying on his back. He crawls into his lap, so his knees are resting on each side of Louis’ hips. “Wanna ride you, baby.”

“Yeah,” Louis lets out in a heavy sigh. His cock is so hard, his joggers not hiding a thing. Harry strokes him through the fabric, and he groans at the touch. “Please, baby, ride me.”

Harry doesn’t hesitate, just drags the joggers off of Louis’ legs and throws them onto the floor. He gets up, taking his own clothes off until he’s completely naked. It’s then that Louis notices it. The tiny pregnancy bump. He sits up, grabbing Harry’s hips and trails kisses across it. “Darling.”

Harry grabs his face, guiding him into a deep kiss. “You can look at my belly later, wanna ride you now.”

Louis lays back against the pillows, sitting propped up against the wall. Harry gets into his lap, immediately sinking down onto his cock. Louis holds him around his hips to steady him through each shallow thrust. His shoulder throbs suddenly, and he lets out a pained groan. “Ugh, my shoulder.”

Harry leans down to kiss his bandage. He takes hold of Louis’ hand, positioning it so his shoulder isn’t strained anymore. Louis leans up to kiss him, humming happily into the kiss. Harry keeps up his slow thrusting, panting with each roll of his hips.

Louis’ panting now, kissing any skin he can reach. “I’m close, honey.”

“Call me yours,” Harry groans out, his thrust getting quicker now as he chases his orgasm. “Say I’m your Omega.”

“You’re my Omega,” Louis whispers into his skin, nibbling and leaving red marks on Harry’s chest. “You’re my Omega, having my pup.” 

Harry’s moans get louder as Louis continues speaking into his skin. Louis thrusts up, his knot expanding as he comes into Harry, growling out the word ‘mine’.

Harry leans down into Louis’ neck as he comes, biting down hard into Louis’ good shoulder. 

“That could’ve easily been a mating bite, darling,” Louis says, catching his breath.

“Yeah,” Harry agrees. Louis somehow manages to maneuver them both so that he’s laying on his back with Harry laying on top of him, his head on Louis’ chest. “Goodnight, my Omega.”

“Goodnight, Alpha.”

\-----

They're all sitting at the kitchen table together, going over what they need for the next supply run. Harry and Louis are both staying home with the twins while the rest of the guys go out.

Louis is still a bit sceptical of Niall, and tries his best to avoid him whenever he can. But he's Harry's friend and Harry trusts him so he's trying to take whatever advice Niall gives. "So, a fence?"

Niall nods where he's sitting at the other end of the round table. "I'll be able to build it with you Alphas helping me."

"Great," Louis says, fake enthusiastically. "You take the truck then."

"Makes sense," Niall agrees. "I actually have an idea for the fence, if we just-"

"Habby!" Doris comes running into the room, tears running down her face as she grabs Harry's hand, dragging him out of the room with as much strength as she can muster in her three year old body.

Louis gets up and follows them outside. What he sees in the garden makes his blood turn cold. A zombie is stumbling towards Ernie, who just sits stock still, clutching his little bleeding leg to his chest. He runs inside of his bedroom and grabs Niall's gun that he'd stashed in the highest shelf of his closet. He runs back outside and storms up to the zombie, shooting it in the head. 

The blood splatters onto him and Ernie, and he puts the safety back on, putting the gun into the back of his pants before he grabs Ernie. 

Ernie sobs into his shoulder in between pained screams. Louis just keeps kissing his head and making soothing noises as he carries him inside. "Liam, get your doctor kit."

Liam already has it open in the bathroom. He gestures to the toilet, so Louis sits down on it with Ernie in his lap, maneuvering the boy so he's facing Liam.

Louis scents Ernie in an effort to calm the boy down, and it seems to be working. The screams have faded into little whines. "What happened, Ernie? Can you tell me?"

"I see the ugly man," Ernie sniffles. "I fall into wock."

"And did the ugly man do anything?" Liam asks calmly as he wipes at the wound with a sanitising wet wipe. Ernie just shakes his head. He's finally calmed down, taking deep breaths as he continues to tremble.

Louis keeps pressing kisses to the side of his head, rubbing his hand up and down his arm in an effort to comfort. 

Liam lets out a breath when he's done wiping most of the blood off. "It's not too deep. He just needs butterfly stitches. I'll put something over it so it has less chance of getting infected."

Louis nods, pressing yet another kiss to his little brothers head. "Thanks, Liam."

Liam waves his hand through the air as if waving off the thanks. "None needed."

\------

After Ernie and Doris have been put down for a nap in their bed, Louis joins the rest of the guys at the kitchen table. He looks at Niall determinedly "Tell me everything we can do to keep my pups safe."

Niall gives him a small smile as he nods. "Well as I've mentioned before, there's the fence."

"Make whatever plan you need," Louis says. "We're going to build that fence."

"Good," Niall gets a notebook and a pen. "I'll make some measurements."

"Thank you, Niall."

"Don't mention it."

\------

Louis waits until everyone’s asleep before he walks into the living room, where Niall’s sleeping on his mattress. He kicks him lightly until he wakes up with a jolt, fists raised to protect himself. Louis steps back, arms raised in a gesture of peace. “Sorry,” he whispers. “Come outside, I want to talk.”

Niall blinks at him blearily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Sure.”

They walk down the path from the cabin until they’re standing in front of the cars. Louis unlocks the Range Rover, getting himself comfortable in the passenger seat with his feet up on the dashboard. Niall joins him by sitting in the driver’s seat, facing him. “What’d you want to talk to me about?”

“You,” Louis says, scrolling down the window so he can light a cigarette, blowing the smoke outside. “I don’t trust you much, as you might have noticed.”

“Yeah,” Niall agrees. “I’ve noticed.”

“So,” Louis continues. “I want to fix that. Harry thinks you’re trustworthy, considers you his friend and he’s my Omega, so I’ll have to give you a chance.”

“And how do I gain your trust?”

“By being honest,” Louis says, taking a deep drag of his cigarette. “I want to know your story. How you came to be in the woods alone with a gun in the middle of the apocalypse.”

“And if I say something that bothers you?” Niall asks, running his fingers through his hair. It’s the first time Louis has seen him even slightly nervous. 

“It depends in what way it bothers me.”

“Okay,” Niall says. He looks out of the window, his gaze towards the woods. He’s biting his lip, fingers twitching. “Can I bum a smoke?”

Louis hands him him a cigarette and his lighter wordlessly, understanding the need for the things in moments of stress and uncertainty. Niall brings it to his mouth, lighting up and inhaling it deeply. “What do you want to know?”

“Start from the beginning,” Louis shrugs, throwing his cigarette out of the window. “What’s your story? All that stuff.”

“Okay,” Niall nods, taking another deep drag and letting the smoke curl out of him slowly. “My parents died when I was fifteen. I was sent to a foster home. Nobody wants to adopt a teenager, or foster one most of the time, so that’s where I stayed until I was eighteen. It was hell, and you had to know how to protect yourself at all costs.”

“And your brother? The hacker?” Louis asks, wanting to know about the guy since Niall had so easily gotten them into Costco. 

“I have no older brother, I learned my hacking skills from a boy at the foster home,” Niall stares wistfully outside, avoiding Louis’ eyes. “He was a couple years younger than me, but he was brilliant. He knew everything you could possibly know about computers. If you needed anything that required the use of hacking, he’d be your guy.”

“Sounds like a cool bloke to me,” Louis says. He stares at Niall’s clenched jaw, and the way he keeps avoiding eye contact. “What happened to him?”

“He died,” Niall whispers, like the words are so painful that he can barely utter them out loud. “He was the best person I’ve ever met. He was… the love of my life.”

Louis blinks, not having expected that at all. “Did he die before or after the virus?”

“During,” Niall answers, staring down into his lap. “We had planned to mate later on, after he got out of jail. He went in for hacking, one of the guys at the home snitched on him because the guy was stupid enough to show the police his fake driving license that Shawn had made for him. That was his name. Shawn. He was an Omega, the most beautiful person you’d ever meet. He didn’t deserve to die in a virus infected prison.”

Louis really feels for Niall now, he can’t imagine his Omega dying alone in a virus infected prison. He can’t even imagine his Omega  _ going _ to prison. “I’m sorry.” 

“It is what it is,” Niall says, shrugging sadly. “Can’t change it now. Anyway, I stole the gun from one of the men who ran the foster home, he had it in a safe in his office. I remember when I was seventeen and saw him with it. It was fucked up. So I went back there as soon as everything went down and stole it. I’ve been on the move ever since. That’s how I ended up here, in the middle of the woods, with only my guitar, a backpack of clothes and a gun.”

“How did you learn to build a fence?” Louis asks, trying to lighten the mood while also satisfying his own curiosity. 

Niall lets out a soft laugh, smiling. “One of Shawn’s clients owned a fence installation company, and he got me a job there before Shawn went in. I still can’t believe the last year of Shawn’s life, of our life, was spent apart.”

“I honestly can’t imagine,” Louis says in understanding. “Just the thought of being away from Harry now, away from my  _ family _ , I just can’t bear it.”

“And hopefully, you never will,” Niall says fiercely. “Not if I can help it. I may only have known you lads a short amount of time, but I care.”

“You know what, Niall?” Louis says, smiling. “I think I trust you now, after this talk.”

“Good,” Niall shocks him by bringing him into a short hug. “I’m glad.”

\------

Louis’ sitting in the new lounge chair that they got on their last supply run, reading to the twins. They sit on either side of him in his lap, listening with rapt attention as he reads Dotty’s favourite book, The Little Mermaid, to them. 

Harry waddles into the room, his belly has gotten quite big in the past few weeks. He’s around 5 months into his pregnancy now, and he’s got the pregnancy glow, almost radiates with it. Pregnancy suits him so very well, Louis thinks. 

“Alpha,” Harry asks, as he waddles to the couch and takes a seat closest to them. Louis loves when he calls him Alpha, as he’s taken to doing a lot more lately. Their relationship has only gotten better since they made it official about two months back. 

Louis smiles at his Omega. “Yes, my darling Omega?”

Harry’s smile is radiant at the words. Louis knows how much he loves getting called that pet name. “I need to speak to you about tomorrow.”

The twins’ birthday is tomorrow, which had shocked him a lot since he hadn’t been paying any attention to a calendar. Luckily for him, Harry has been obsessed with knowing the days and months, so much so that he writes into his little journal every day, with the dates at the top of the pages. Louis kisses each twin on their forehead. “Do you want to watch the movie of The Little Mermaid, loves?”

The twins bounce excitedly in his lap at that suggestion. They don’t get to watch the TV much, as Louis prefers they play more with their toys or go outside for their games. The fence is halfway built, as Niall is taking it very seriously and making it a strong one to keep everything outside. Louis turns on the TV, putting the DVD in the player and turning the movie on.

He helps Harry get up, holding him at the small of his back as they walk to what has become their bedroom. Once, while Harry had been outside with the twins, he’d taken the opportunity and put the bunk bed in storage and replaced it with one big mattress from the last supply run. Niall had built them a bed frame out of some of the wood originally meant for the fence, but Louis couldn’t but help be grateful. Their bed is really comfortable, and it’s memory foam, the best for his Omega’s weak back. 

Harry sits down at the edge of the bed, scooting back until he’s sitting with his back to the wall. “I don’t really need to talk about anything serious, I just wanted cuddles.”

“Darling,” Louis crawls into the bed, putting his arms around his Omega and scenting him. Harry sighs happily and nuzzles into him. “You know, you could’ve just cuddled me in the family room. We could’ve cuddled and watched the movie with the twins.”

“I know,” Harry admits. “But I want to have sex.”

And there it is. Harry’s getting hornier and hornier with each passing week. It’s as if the bigger he gets, the more he wants his knot. Louis lets out a soft laugh. “So you planned to take me in here to seduce me?”

“Yeah,” Harry shrugs. He starts trailing kisses on Louis’ neck. “Is it working?”

“With you?” Louis takes off his shirt, throwing it to the floor. “Always.”

Harry smiles, dragging him into a deep kiss.

\-----

“Happy birthday to youuu, Happy birthday to youuu,” Harry sings beautifully, carrying a beautiful cake he’d baked himself towards the kitchen table, where their little found family is gathered. “Happy birthday to Dorisandearnieeee, happy birthday to youu!”

He deposits the cake in the middle of the table. He gives each twin a birthday kiss on their cheeks before he sits down in Louis’ lap, rubbing his pregnant belly. Louis kisses his neck softly. “Now, who wants a piece of this cake?”

“ME!” the twins yell in unison, clutching their forks at the ready in their fists. Niall laughs as he starts cutting the cake, giving each twin a big slice of the pink side. The cake had been made half pink and half yellow, as Ernie’s favorite color is yellow and Dotty’s is pink. 

Harry has really outdone himself with it. Louis has no idea how he managed to make a cake without eggs, but he’s in awe at how good it tastes as he shares a slice with Harry as the Omega feeds him bites in between his own. “Mmm, this is delicious love, thank you.”

Harry beams, preening at the compliments given to him. “It’s a talent. I used to work in a bakery before all this, you know.” 

“I know, darling,” Louis laughs, teasing him. “You’ve only said it a million times.”

Harry’s cheeks are a bright pink, dimples on full display and Louis can’t help himself, he presses kisses Harry’s cheeks. The twins groan. “Achoo, stop kissing.”

“Sorry, babes,” Louis kisses Harry again. “I just can’t help it, Harry’s just so cute. In fact, you’re starting to look irresistible as well, I could just eat you all up.” 

The twins giggle “Noooo, Harry can keep the kissies.”

“You hear that, baby?” Harry says, leaning in to rest his forehead against the side of Louis’ head. “I get to keep  _ all _ the kissies.” He tilts his head down to capture Louis’ lips in a tender kiss. The twins groan again, but Louis knows they’re just imitating the kid from that one movie they like that was disgusted by the thought of kissing, they secretly love kissies.

“Okay, no need to show off,” Liam pipes up, smirking. “You can do more of that tonight in private.”

“Oh, we will,” Harry says, taking a big bite of his cake. Humming in pleasure of the sugary treat. 

The rest of the day is spent doing things that the twins like most. They play football, as well as hand painting a mural outside, Louis would hang it up on the wall in the family room when it’s dry. Niall brings out his guitar and sings a few songs for them, including an original song he wrote. 

The twins go to sleep that night with huge smiles on their faces after their bedtime story. All in all, it was the best they could’ve had without the rest of their family. Louis is sure his mum is smiling down at him from heaven, her arms around the rest of her children. Their guardian angels. 

\-----

Louis wakes up to strange noises coming from next to him. He blinks his eyes open, looking at Harry who’s groaning in his sleep. He nudges him awake. “Harry? Darling?”

Harry opens his eyes, tiredly blinking up at him. “What?” then he groans, loudly. “Fuck, my back hurts.”

He lets out a breath of relief after a moment. “Okay, I think it was just the baby moving around or something.”

“Are you sure, darling?” Louis asks, rubbing his Omega’s back soothingly. Harry’s gotten really sweaty, his curls all mussed up and his eyes are watery, silent tears falling down his cheeks. 

Harry starts nodding before he starts groaning again. “Liam, get Liam. The baby. I think it’s time.”

“But-” Louis starts. Fuck. Harry’s only supposed to be eight months along, this is too early. He jumps out of the bed, running out of the room and pounding at the door to Liam and Zayn’s room. The door swings open to reveal a grumpy looking Zayn. “What the fuck Lou-”

“The baby,” Louis whispers out, still in quite a shock. “It’s coming.” 

Liam comes up behind Zayn, his arm coming to rest around his waist. “Hey, Louis, why are you naked?”

Louis starts, looking down at himself to notice he is indeed naked. He waves his arm. “It doesn’t matter. Harry’s in labour.”

Liam blinks. “Shit,” he says, before addressing Zayn. “Get the medical table from the storage.”

Zayn runs out of the room and outside, quickly waking Niall up on his way out the front door so they can get the table. Liam grabs Louis’ face, making him look straight into his eyes. “It’ll be okay, go get Harry, bring him here, into my room. I’ve got everything ready.”

Louis nods. “Thank you,” he runs back to his Omega, who’s sitting at the edge of the bed, clutching his back with his eyes squeezed shut. “It hurts.” Louis gathers him into his arms, stroking a hand through his hair. “I know, darling, I know. Can you walk?”

Harry breathes Louis’ scent in deeply, nodding into his chest. Louis helps him to his feet, rubbing his back in gentle circles as he leads him slowly into Liam’s room. Liam grabs Harry’s hand, guiding the Omega onto the newly sterilised medical table, a thin mattress on top of it. “Lay down on your back, Harry.”

When he’s finally in position, he starts crying, clutching at Louis’ hand. “I can’t do it, Alpha, I can’t.”

Louis kisses his forehead, squeezing his hand back. “Yes, you can, my darling Omega. You’re so strong, you can get through this.”

Harry just squeezes his eyes shut as another contraction overtakes him. He’s hissing through his teeth, and Louis is so sure he’s going to have bruises on his hand after this is over, Harry’s gripping it so hard. He keeps his eyes trained on Harry’s face, not looking away at whatever Liam’s doing.

“Okay, Harry,” Liam says, all geared up in his medical gloves and mask. He’s even wearing one of those green robe surgical things Louis has no idea what they’re called. “I’m going to give you an epidural, I’m warning you that it’s not a normal one, but it’s the only thing I could find close to it. I’ll also hook you to an IV.”

Harry nods, eyes still squeezed shut. Louis runs his fingers through Harry’s long curls, as his hair has gotten long in the year they’ve been here. Liam has put up a sheet that hides Harry’s lower half, and Louis’ so grateful for it, as he wouldn’t even be able to stomach seeing any blood at the moment. 

“Oh,” Harry smiles, opening his eyes and looking at his Alpha. “It’s kicked in fast. What is it?”

Liam smiles down at them. “A whole lot of morphine, for one.”

“Morphine?” Louis asks, scrunching up his nose. “Won’t that hurt the baby?”

“No,” Liam answers, shaking his head. “I put only the maximum amount I can that won’t hurt the baby. Now Harry, do you feel this?” Liam asks, doing something behind the sheet that they cannot see. Harry shakes his head. “No.” 

“Good,” Liam nods to himself. “Okay,” He takes hold of Harry’s hand, stabbing him with a small needle and hooking him up to an IV. Louis has no idea how Liam was able to get all of these medical supplies, but he’s so thankful he did it. He remembers how long Liam and Zayn had been gone while they looked for everything they’d need. 

Harry groans again, almost screaming in pain as another contraction hits him. “I hate this.” 

Louis just continues to hold his hand, using his other hand to continue running his fingers through the Omega’s hair, continues giving him kisses on his sweaty forehead. Making soothing noises whenever he can. 

Louis has no idea how much time passes until he hears the cry of his baby. His eyes snap up to see Liam holding the smallest baby he’s ever seen, covered in bodily fluids but oh so beautiful. Liam smiles widely at him. “It’s a girl, would you like to cut the cord?”

“A girl,” he says, he looks down at Harry, who’s smiling up at him through all of the pain. He can’t help it, he drags Harry into a soft kiss before he walks around the sheet, eyes trained on the baby in Liam’s arms. Zayn hands him some scissors, and Louis cuts the cord. Liam hands him the baby, and Louis holds his daughter in his arms, bringing her to Harry, so he can lay her on the Omega’s chest. Harry’s crying, eyes wide as he stares at her. The tiniest thing.

They’re frozen in time as they stare at her, kissing her head even with all the grime and blood. Louis doesn’t even feel disgusted by it, only happy and in awe of her. He doesn’t even notice the tears spilling down his own cheeks. He kisses Harry again. “It’s our daughter. We have a little baby girl.”

Harry nods, sobbing and kissing her head. “I love you, Alpha.” 

Louis can’t help the sob that escapes his own mouth in return. “I love you, too, My darling Omega.”

  
  



End file.
